Alternative Choice
by Flower Angel Becca
Summary: On that night he had two choices that would result in keeping the life he had, but the wrong choice resulted in the loss of something precious to him..but what if he'd gone with the other choice instead?, a what if fanfic based on episode 7. Chapter 6 up.
1. Finding a solution

**Authors Notes: And the Shou Tucker orientated-fics continue! XD**

Seriously though.. this was thought up after I drew a picture concerning an alternative approach to episode 7..  
And afterwards this story just *begged* to be written.. so here without further ado, is the first chapter of my latest fanfic.

**Alternative Choice.**

**By Rebecca Mason.  
Authors Notes: Shou, Nina and Alexander belong to Hiromu Arakawa.****Finding a Solution.**

Chapter 1.

Shou Tucker sat in the darkness of the mansion's dining room, things were looking very bleak.  
Earlier Basque Grand had come over and had more or less given Shou an ultimatum.  
Either he produced good results for the assessment that was in less than two days...or he lost his certification as a State Alchemist and he, Nina and Alexander would have this mansion and life-style taken away from them..and be put back into a life of poverty; something that two or so years previously, Shou had to make a huge sacrifice to get them out of.  
He didn't want to go back to being poor, how on earth would he be able to support both Nina and Alexander then?

Shou knew Nina wouldn't be used to being poor, it would be too much of a big change for her.. and if it turned out that they couldn't keep Alexander....that would completely break her, Alexander was her only friend; Shou could remember all the times Nina played with Alexander, how her cheerful laughter always could be heard outside in the garden.

If Alexander was gone, Nina would probably never smile or laugh again, and then there was the fear that Nina would be taken away from Shou.  
If that did happen, Shou just wouldn't be able to go on.. Nina meant the world to him, ever since the day of her birth.  
Although he was nothing like Major Maes Hughes, Shou still tried to spend as much time with his daughter when he got the chance.

It was just that with the assessment date coming up, Shou had been waist-deep in research and felt that he had to get all of it done before the dead-line, it was a habit he'd got back when he was a teenager working in the gun factory, believing that if he got all the work done fast, he could do more pleasant things afterwards.

That had also been the reason as to why he'd married Nina's mother so late as well, work had kept them waiting for at least three years before they both tied the knot and work had also kept them waiting another three years before Nina was born.  
" Well it won't take me over this time.." he muttered quietly to himself.  
" Once I get the funding for the result of the assessment..I'm going to try and spend as much time with Nina as possible"

Ideas had been running through his head lately, decisions on what to do..everyone had been asking Shou to make another talking chimera..even the Elric brothers wanted to see one.. and not being able to say 'no', Shou had promised them that he'd show it to them once it was made.  
" But everyone wants me to... maybe I should.."

But what would he use? there were guards keeping watch outside the house.. he couldn't use one of them, it would be too noticable.  
The Elric brothers were no longer staying at the house..and even if they were, Shou couldn't of used the smaller one.  
Everyone would definately notice if the military's new prized 'possesion' went missing.

Right now there were only three life-forms in the house that he could use to make the talking chimera that everyone wanted to see.  
Nina, Alexander...and himself.  
But his eyes widened with fear at the mere thought of using his daughter as an ingredient in the making of the said-chimera.  
He still felt intense guilt from when he used Nina's mother as an ingredient to make that other talking chimera, back when he became a State Alchemist.

The nightmares of his chimera-ized wife still haunted him from time to time, as if mocking him for his foolish actions.  
He had always tried to apologise to her, tried to tell her that there had been no other way, that he did it for all of them..and if she hadn't of killed herself, she would of been able to be there for it too, granted she wouldn't of been in her original human form but she still would of been there.  
But she never listened to him, she didn't understand him.. and she never had, not even when she was human.

Shaking himself from his reminiscence, Shou once again focused on the matter that was hand.  
" Surely if I did use Nina..she'd understand me.....right?" he looked up at the ceiling for a few seconds, as if expecting someone to answer him.. but as he should of expected, no reply was to be heard.  
" Who am I kidding?....I'd be a monster if I did such a thing.." he said, drooping his head with a sigh, but he'd made a promise to those boys..and when Shou Tucker made a promise he intended to keep it..even if in reality that meant his needs came last.

But then again.. his needs always had came last when work was concerned.... the people he worked for, they didn't care if he lost the one precious thing in his life that kept him going, that one thing that kept his sanity in tact, that one thing that stopped the darker insane part of his personality from surfacing.  
" My baby..my little Nina.." he squeaked quietly.  
He had started to sob helplessly, it seemed like everything was lost, no matter how he looked at it.

" But if I did do it...what if someone found out?.. what could I tell them ... because I did it out of blind curiousity and for the scientific good of man-kind? ....or to see just what I could really do with this skill and knowlege that I have?! or would I just tell them the truth and say that I did it to keep this house, just so me and Nina wouldn't end up on the streets?" he had started blurting out questions to just himself, hoping that somehow he could find some kind of solution.. but to no avail, once again no answers came.

He then just sat for the next few minutes in silence, it was only when he heard Nina say ' Daddy' that he turned around to face his little girl, there she was.. his little angel, standing in the doorway with Alexander.  
The decision that he feared was starting to make itself even more clear, but he wasn't going to allow it to overtake him, he needed to try and put on a brave face.

" Are you hurtin' somewhere?" the small child asked as she looked up at her father, her expression was full of concern for her father.

Alexander whined slightly, also as if to ask Shou what was wrong.

Shou looked to Nina and Alexander for a while, his expression seemed lost at first.  
' _Right...keep it together Shou..keep it together_' he mentally said to himself as he rose slowly from the dining room's chair.  
However as he stood up, his face faltered as he tried to hold back tears.  
' _So much for keeping it together_..' he almost heard a voice that sounded like his, say in the back of his head.  
While that concerned him slightly, he just knelt down til he was eye-level with Nina.  
' _I can't....I just can't_.. ' he thought to himself and gently pulled his beloved daughter into a fatherly hug.  
' _I can't hide anything from her anymore.... I've hidden so much from her already, all those letters and drawings to her mother...I burnt every single one of them just to protect her from the truth.. but all this time.. I've just been making it worse_..'  
" I'm...at the end of the line here...Nina" he finally said, as he held her close to him.

For Nina, that was all it took.. she looked to her father, then smiled an understanding smile and hugged back.  
" Daddy.." was all she said.

A few more minutes passed as both father and daughter hugged.  
Shou wished that all the uncertainties that threatened their happy lives together just melted away..just so that the two of them could carry on living like this, not even all the knowledge and power in the world could replace this feeling that both father and daughter shared.  
But finally the tranquility of the moment was broken as Shou spoke up.  
" Nina, sweetheart.." he said as he looked to her.

" Hmm? "

He could hear her sleepy reply and chuckled quietly.  
" I think somebody needs to go to beddy-byes now" he said, stroking her hair gently.

Nina smiled and put her arms sleepily around her father's neck.  
" Okay Daddy, and don't worry.. I'll make sure that the bed bugs don't bite me" she giggled as she looked up to her father's gentle face.

" That's my girl" Shou said chuckling slightly as he stood up slowly, his arms carefully supported Nina in a fatherly hold and began to walk towards the stairs.

Alexander trotted alongside Shou, scrambling up the steps of the stairs once Shou had started his ascension up them too.

Once he'd got to Nina's bedroom, he'd helped Nina get into her night-dress, before laying her down in her bed, although as he was tucking her in so that she wouldn't fall out of bed, he heard her say something.

" Will everything be okay tomorrow Daddy?.." she asked, although she didn't show it much, he could hear how worried she sounded.

" Everything'll be okay sweetheart, I promise...have sweet dreams.." he said with a gentle smile and kissed her gently on the forehead.

The little girl returned the smile and giggled gently as he kissed her on the forehead.  
"Goodnight Daddy" she said, slowly closing her eyes as she slipped off into dream-land.

Shou smiled at his little girl as she fell asleep before quietly going out of the room, he patted his side motioning for Alexander to follow him, he then walked alongside the big dog as he once again walked back down to the dining room.  
" Well I didn't do it.." he said with a triumphant grin.  
" I didn't take Nina to my lab.. I didn't make myself a monster!" he said chuckling happily to himself, almost too happy in fact.. deliriously happy.  
" I still have my little girl, she didn't suffer the same fate as her mother, we can still be together!" he carried on muttering to himself.

However that chuckling and smile gradually faded until he looked like his usual sombre self.  
" But...people still want that talking chimera and I promised Nina that everything would be okay" he put his hands to his head.  
He'd just gone and made things even more complicated for himself.

Alexander barked a little and whined, nudging at his master's leg with his cold wet nose.

" I know Alexander.. I don't want to disappoint Nina either.. but if I disappoint the people I work for.. I'll end up breaking two promises..because thing's won't be alright if I don't give everyone else what *they* want" he stroked the dog's head gently and leaned back in the chair.  
" If only I could find one perfect solution in this jumbled mess.." he sighed.  
" Something that could fufil both promises..we'd be alright and able to go on with this happy life.. and everyone would see this oh-so wonderful talking chimera"

He then just chuckled half-heartily.  
" At this point in time boy, I'd be willing to try anything.. just as long as it meant Nina's safety..I mean she has me and you.. but if they take away all our money.. I don't even know if we'd be allowed to keep you.. I can't lie to you there.."

Alexander's ears flattened slightly and he whimpered, he could tell how his master was feeling now..and started to lick his hand in an effort to comfort him.

" It's alright..I don't plan on losing you either.. I mean me and you..we're a team.. you look after her when I can't.. and I look after her as a parent..I know that she needs both of us.."  
His lazy gaze had drifted to a nearby mirror where he saw him and Alexander reflected in it.  
" Both of us.." Shou repeated, his eyes resting on the view he saw in the mirror.  
All of a sudden, Shou's once sad expression broke into a small grin as his mind had come up with another solution, surely this one would work.  
" Alexander....I think I've got it.."

**To be continued! **


	2. The Transmutation

**Alternative Choice.**

**By Rebecca Mason.  
Authors Notes: Hee! and here is the second chapter in my alternative take on 'Night of the Chimera's Cry'  
Where will Shou's new solution take him next?**

Shou Tucker, Nina Tucker and Alexander belong to Hiromu Arakawa.

**Chapter 2. **

**' The Transmutation' **

Shou walked towards his lab chuckling to himself almost insanely.  
" I'm telling you, this possibility will work Alexander.. it just has to" he said, looking down to the dog that seemed to be following him reluctantly.  
" All of those tiring months of research, all the months of intense stress, all of the sleepless nights.. they will finally all pay off when we do this!" Shou continued on his ramblings, excitement was evident in his voice as he neared the back-room of the lab, where loads of arrays were drawn on the wall and ceiling.

Alexander padded slowly after him, glancing up uneasily at all the chimera's that were locked up in cages, their glowing eyes could be seen from within the darkness and their horrific roars echoed in the room, the occasional paw tried to claw it's way out, desperate to attack Shou and Alexander as they walked past the cages.  
So this is why Shou always had the door locked when he was working in here..it was just so Nina didn't wander in and see all of this.  
If she did, Alexander knew that it would traumatize the poor child for life, maybe even fill her head with nightmares that would stay for months, maybe even years.  
He looked to his master once again, how could the man even have the bravery to work with all of these....monsters.  
Alexander had a lot of questions forming in his head, yet being a dog he was unable to ask Shou them, not being able to talk could be so frustrating at times.

Shou had now stopped at his designated spot in the room, taking a piece of chalk from the nearby table then kneeling down and was now sketching a kind of circle on the ground.  
" It has to be perfect, we can't let this go wrong...I have to do this right" he said, the dim light of the room seemed to reflect on his glasses, giving him an incredibly eerie looking appearance, it also didn't help matters that he seemed to be grinning.

Alexander's ears flattened onto his head again, he didn't like the feeling of this situation, not at all.  
His tail drooped inbetween his legs and he started to whine, could he of been able to speak.. it probably would of been something like.  
' _I don't want to be in here anymore! please can we get out of here now_?'

Shou looked up from drawing on the floor, the light seemed to reveal his eyes once again as he was breifly knocked out of his apparent madness.  
" It's alright Alexander, relax...I promise you this won't take long" he then returned to finishing the sketch of the circle.  
It was now starting to take the form of a transmutation array.  
" Once this is over...we'll never have to worry about having Nina taken away from us ever again; we can always protect her, always be there for her..." he seemed to have an almost dreamy expression on his face as he imagined it, in his mind it seemed so simple.  
He'd transmute himself and Alexander into a chimera.

Then at the assessment, the two of them in their new body, could give a speech...saying that Shou had been ill and not able to make it to the assessment; but the chimera he had made would be so advanced, it was able to go to the building all by itself, as well as imitate Shou's voice.  
Everyone would be in awe and the funding would be his!  
Then after all was said and done, Shou, Nina and Alexander would still have this lifestyle.

Shou just grinned widely again, it was almost too good to be true.  
Sure so there was a lot on the line and he wondered if he should really go all the way.. what he was about to do was considered a very big taboo in alchemy, but another part of him seemed to be eagerly urging him to go through with it.  
Afterall, that Edward Elric had also committed a taboo, and he had now become an honored alchemist!  
Surely if he'd been able to get away with it, then Shou could as well.  
" That boy would understand my reasons for doing this surely..." Shou muttered again as he started to add the finishing touches to the array.  
" He knew that human transmutation was forbidden in the first place, but he still did it anyway!"

Alexander had in the meantime walked over to Shou and sat down beside him, his ears perking up a little when Shou had mentioned Edward's name.  
He remembered Edward as that boy that had come to stay with the Tucker's in those long months before the assessment, he'd had a little brother too, in the form of a giant suit of armour that had sounded like a young boy, he could remember him being called Alphonse.  
Alexander had always enjoyed playing ' Pounce on the Ed' when he was here...and it also saddened him as well as Nina when both Ed and Al had to go away.  
The dog then looked down at the array that was now drawn on the ground, he sniffed at it quizzically wondering what it was for, although that uneasy feeling he'd had earlier was still in his mind.

Shou then looked to Alexander and chuckled, ruffling the dog's head gently.  
" Okay, it's all done Alexander..how's about we do this, hmm?"

Alexander still wasn't so sure as he looked to his master, and whined in response to the man's question.  
He really wished that he could talk in human language now, if he could..he'd definately try and talk Shou out of doing whatever he was about to do..of course, whether it would of made a difference would of been another question entirely.

Shou just smiled, it seemed to be a comforting enough expression, but something didn't seem right about Shou's eyes, the humanity in them had seemingly vanished, his pupils had shrunk to little dots amid circles of clear blue irises.  
" Alexander...there's nothing to worry about, I've already said this won't take long at all.." he then stood in the middle of the circle and motioned for Alexander to stand next to him.

Just looking to Shou, Alexander was starting to wonder if this crazy man was even the same loving master that had raised both Alexander and Nina in the last few years.  
It looked like him, it smelt like him and it sounded like him.. but the feeling that Alexander was picking up from him seemed so different, he really was starting to wonder if he should even trust this man anymore.  
Despite all misconceptions he'd started to have, Alexander just decided to listen to the man anyway and slowly walked over to the middle of the circle, although he continued whining as he stood next to his master.

Shou smiled and knelt down to the dog, once again stroking the dog's head gently.  
" Good boy Alexander, I knew you'd understand me" he said, now making a big fuss of the dog.  
He then hugged the dog around the neck, hiding his face in the dog's fur.

Alexander was just puzzled by this, the master had never made so much fuss of him before...sure he'd given him the occasional doggy treat when he'd done something right, he'd told him that he was a good boy when he was on his best behavior, he'd stroked the dog's head before.  
But never in Alexander's two, going on three, years of living had Shou given him this much attention, it was almost like Shou would never be able to do this ever again.

Shou finally broke away from the hug and looked down at the dog.  
" Well Alexander...let's get this over and done with, let's fufil both of those promises" he said and took off the dog's collar before throwing it to the side of the circle.  
He then took off his own glasses and looked at them for a while before just laughing half heartily.  
" Looks like I won't need these anymore..." he muttered before throwing the glasses to the side.

Alexander's ears drooped a little as he watched his dog collar hit the ground, followed shortly by Shou's glasses.  
He definately knew that it wasn't like Shou to throw away his own glasses, although he did notice that the man seemed to have a regretful look on his face, the man's eyes had also returned to looking normal.  
Alexander still wasn't sure about what was going to happen, but he felt relieved seeing that his master was perhaps feeling just as unsure about this as he was, the large dog remained silent for a few seconds before giving a hearty bark and licking Shou on the face.

Shou smiled gently in response and seemed to nod to the dog, he couldn't understand dog language..but it finally seemed like Alexander was willing to do this too, although Shou had to admit, he was starting to have second thoughts about doing this.  
He had no idea how this would turn out...and he didn't want to end up putting Alexander through any pain, he longed to apologise in advance to the dog, saying that Alexander had been the best dog ever, despite all those times that he'd pounced on people, he wanted to say thank you to the dog for looking after Nina and being a very good friend to her, but all that managed to come out of his mouth in the end was;  
" I'm sorry about all this Alexander..everything will be fine soon, I promise you..."

But the other side of him started to urge him to get it over and done with again...that and he remembered who he was doing this for, at least...who he **_hoped_** he was doing this for.  
" For Nina!" he called out, and as Alexander barked in response, Shou put his hands firmly down on one of the circle's edges and within a few seconds of doing so, initiated the start of the transmutation.  
Very soon, bright light erupted from the circle's lines of chalk and seemed to build a wall around Shou and Alexander.

Alexander was terrified of this, just how could bright light come out of the ground.. or lines drawn with chalk for that matter?!  
He started to whine and bark non-stop, the urge to run was flooding his mind and he intended to act on it.  
But he couldn't just leave his master in this circle of light, it would be going against his nature as man's best friend if he did such a thing.

" It'll be alright Alexander..this shall all be over soon" Shou replied in response to the dog's whines and panicked barks, his eyes had gone back to looking humanity drained, yet his hands were noticably trembling as all this took place.  
For one part of Shou it was of complete and utter terror, but for the insane part it was more a case of sheer excitement.  
" It shall all be over soon.." he repeated again although this time his tone sounded more frantic, he then closed his eyes tight.  
" Forgive me!" he called out as he braced himself for the impact of the transmutation.

Alexander was about ready to grab ahold of Shou and haul both of them out of the circle, even if his master had seemingly gone insane at this point in time.  
But just before the dog could do such a thing, the bright light intensified and enveloped the two of them.  
The transmutation was now in progress, the deconstructing, merging and reconstructing of both life forms would now begin..and from it, a new chimera would be born.  
Both Shou and Alexander looked to one another as they were both bathed in light.

Alexander sat looking up at his master with a lost expression, fear was still running in the dog's mind but that was starting to be numbed by something he couldn't quite explain..all he knew was the fact he felt like going to sleep.

Shou knelt looking down at the dog, his expression was one of helplessness as he now knew that the inevitable was coming and thankfully the insane side of him had seemingly disappeared for the moment.  
His mind was in a whirl for some reason, the reasons as to why he was doing this were all getting jumbled up and he couldn't stop it.

Flashes of memories shot through his brain faster than a strike of lightning, he wanted to see what they were of.. but for some reason it wouldn't let him, voices from familiar people echoed through his mind but they started to merge together and were eventually hard to understand.  
Eventually any feelings he was experiencing began to be replaced by numbness, Shou then found himself slowly slipping from consciousness.  
As he began to drift off, tears fell from both eyes as a last sign of feeling.  
" Nina.." was all he managed to say as he, along with Alexander, then fell into some kind of slumber.

**To be continued!**


	3. Wandering through the darkness

**Alternative Choice.**

**By Rebecca Mason.  
Authors Notes: So in the last chapter.. Shou and Alexander have now become ingredients in Shou's own experiment for a new talking chimera ..what will become of them now?****'Wandering through the darkness.'**

Shou Tucker and Alexander belong to Hiromu Arakawa.

Chapter 3.

After the bright light had enveloped Shou and Alexander, both had slipped from consciousness.. it was now that Shou found himself standing in a dark and extremely quiet place.  
Looking down at himself, he found to his surprise that he was naked..yet nothing was detailed, he wondered where he was.. it definately wasn't in his lab..was he still alive?

" Where am I?" was all he said to himself, he then heard as his voice echoed all over the place, gradually fading into a low murmur...and then silence once again.  
Shou's eyes then widened as he remembered that Alexander had been standing next to him just as the transmutation had started.  
Yet now the dog was no-where to be seen..surely he was alright?!  
" Alexander!" Shou called out into the darkness, hoping that the big dog would respond and come running..but no bark sounded and Alexander didn't come.

Gulping slightly, Shou began to walk forward slowly although his senses were still slightly numbed from when the light had struck both him and Alexander so he had no idea what direction he should take.  
He could feel his feet touching nothing as he went forward..was he even going forward?  
Shou started to wonder if he was actually getting anywhere, he heard no footsteps what-so-ever, no indication that he'd made any further progress.

" I just want to get out of here...please, please show me a way out!" he called up to the darkened heavens, pleading for someone, anyone, anything to help him.  
Now he could now feel himself trembling out of nervousness, fear...he felt like a little child that had been left all alone in the dark with not even a night-light for comfort.  
Was this how Nina would of felt if Shou had used her as an ingredient? surely she would of been spared this horrid experience, this must of been someone's punishment for old Shou Tucker's past wrong-doing's...it just had to be.  
He didn't know for sure, but he couldn't let the fear take him over completely, there had to be someway out of this unbearable place.

All of a sudden, that's when he saw it.. it was small, but it was definately there in the so-called distance...a small dot of light.  
Shou breathed a sigh of relief.  
" Thank you.." he then smiled and began to run towards it, although he felt slightly uneasy about where this light would lead him, at the moment only one hope went through his head.  
" Please let it lead out of this place.." he muttered quietly to himself as he felt his legs graduallly pick up speed, he could definately tell that he was running now.

The light seemed to be coming closer now, the small dot was forever growing bigger.  
As he carried on running, he could feel a comforting warmth welcoming his every step.  
All of a sudden the familiar sound of paws could be heard padding behind Shou, they very soon caught up to him.  
And with the sound of a bark, Shou looked to see that Alexander was back and running alongside him.  
" Alexander, thank goodness you're alive!" he said in a relieved tone and once again looked ahead of himself as he ran on.  
" I was worried where you'd gone off to..."

Alexander just barked in response; he seemed to be smiling as he ran along, the warmth also welcomed him too.  
Like Shou, he had also been wandering around in the dark place..and was incredibly thankful when he'd spotted the light.  
He wondered if taking this path would guide them back to the lab, he certainly hoped so; the minute they got back, he'd go and check on Nina and oddly enough, he felt that Shou would as well...he didn't know how, but it was like their minds were becoming linked with one another.

Shou began to realise the same thing at exactly the same time Alexander had, he felt like the two of them should stop running, then maybe he'd be able to find the reason for this.  
Yet something seemed to beckon to him to keep running.. for both of them to keep running..so they did.  
" We'll find out where this goes, right boy?" Shou asked with a small grin as he once again looked to the big dog.

Alexander looked to Shou and barked what seemed to be a '_Yeah_!' in response, the warmth was now all around them as the reached the source of the light, it looked like a big white portal.  
He could feel that they needed to go through it..and so did Shou, words didn't need to be exchanged between the two of them as they ran on.  
And with that, both man and dog dived headlong into the portal's light.

Once inside the portal, Shou couldn't help but gasp in awe.  
Everything was so bright, it was overwhelming.. yet at the same time, the warmth in the place was very comforting and eased away any anxiety that Shou may of had.

He then looked to see that Alexander had trotted ahead of him..and was now running over to what seemed to be an open door.  
" Alexander? ..hey wait for me" Shou called out and began to run after the dog.  
However it was too late, Alexander had gone through the door before Shou had a chance to stop him.  
Smacking his forehead slightly and a defeated sigh escaping his mouth, Shou then arrived at the door and stood in front of it for a while.

It was then, that he pondered if he should go in or not.. it looked like a harmless-enough door, but there was no telling what was on the other side.  
" Well.. I didn't hear Alexander howl in pain.. so there's nothing life-threatening through there.." he then gulped.  
" I hope.."

After a few more minutes of standing there worrying about what things were through the door, Shou then clenched one hand and looked up with a determined expression.  
" I have to see what's on the other side...it's my job as an alchemi- no...as a _person_, to find out the unknown! regardless of how fatal it may be for me" he added the last part in an uneasy tone.

The determined expression faded slightly.. but his mind was made up now, he was going to head through that door; no matter what it held, he couldn't back out now.  
He then put his other hand on the door's handle as he got ready to step over the threshold.  
Bracing himself for the worst, Shou then stepped over the door's threshold; it was only after he heard the door close behind him, that he opened his eyes again.

He was surprised to find himself in a small yet cosy living room.  
It had a rather old looking couch in the middle of the room, a few other chairs were against the wall...and the fireplace was housing a small fire.  
Looking to the ground, Shou saw that the floorboards were exposed; yet there was round patterned rug over where the couch was.  
As he looked up at the ceiling he realised that it seemed so far away, he couldn't even reach it with his own hands! why did everything seem so much bigger all of a sudden?

Shou was taken aback as realisation flooded in about this house; he knew this place very well, but it wasn't the living room in the mansion, nor was it the living room that was in his and his wife's old house.  
" My....my" he stuttered slightly as he slowly sank onto his knees.  
" My parent's house..." he said quietly to himself.

**To be continued!**

Authors Notes: Wow..I never even planned on making *this* chapter XD; but it's sort of like a pathway between chapter 2 and chapter 4 (which will be a flashback of Shou's life) just to clear up any confusion that this chapter may of caused.


	4. Early Days

**Alternative Choice.****A trip down memory lane Part 1.  
Early Years.**

By Rebecca Mason.  
Authors Notes: After wandering through the darkness, both he and Alexander eventually found the light that led them out of that unpleasant place..but now Shou finds himself in a place from long ago.. what will happen now..and where the heck did Alexander go?!

Shou Tucker and Alexander belong to Hiromu Arakawa.  
Emily and Jacob Tucker belong to Rebecca Mason ( me! )

Chapter 4.

He was still stunned, there was no doubt about it...this place was definately his childhood home and everything around him looked real, it smelt real and when he knelt down and knocked on the floorboards, they felt real.  
" Surely I've completely lost it.." Shou muttered to himself.  
" This must be some sort of hallucination that was brought on by the transmutation, maybe I'm really standing in the lab, maybe the transmutation didn't work! maybe..." he then paused at that.  
But the transmutation must of worked, Shou had felt his and Alexander's minds start to link...of course now he couldn't hear the dog's thoughts, for some reason the link had been cut off when the dog had ran through the open door, so that worried him somewhat.

" Surely Alexander's genes didn't fade away and let mine take over completely.." he paled just thinking about it, if that is what happened..then Alexander was no longer around..and all that remained was Shou.  
He then shook his head to rid his mind of the disturbing thought.  
" No! that's not what could of happened..I would of '**_known_**' if that did happen!" he growled in frustration.

" He has to be here somewhere...but just where could he of gone?" he looked around the room before running over to a closet that had it's door half open.  
Half expecting Alexander to jump out, Shou was a little bit cautious in looking in the closet.  
Yet he finally summoned up the courage and prepared to be pounced on by the big friendly ball of fluff.  
" Okay, come on out Alexande-" he paused as he was interupted by a woman's voice.

" Oh, so that's where you went!" the mysterious yet familiar voice said; and with that, somone lifted Shou up off of the ground.  
" Were you looking for that imaginary friend of yours again Shou?" the woman asked, giggling gently as her face came into view.

Shou's eyes widened as he looked up at the woman's face, it was his mother.  
But how could this be? his mother had been dead for years, yet now..well..there she was! alive and looking really healthy.  
Her brown hair was tied up in a loose ponytail, a long strand of hair dangled down near her left eye, her deep blue eyes focused on his own light baby blues.  
" Ma-mama" he found himself whimpering.. it was now that he realised his voice had gone to sounding like a small child.  
' _Just what on earth is happening to me?!_' Shou mentally asked himself.  
' _How could this be happening? it's not possible...not even alchemy could do this!_' he demanded explanations behind this current situation that he was in...but just like the other times when he had asked for an answer, no explanation came.

" Well don't you worry sweetheart, I'm sure Alexander is fine, he'll probably be back later...just like he always is" the young woman said with a smile before hugging Shou close to her.

Shou just looked up at his mother, a lost expression was on his face.. he didn't know what to do, however he started to suffer from a case of de-ja-vu..but what could of happened at this point in time?

His mother looked a little puzzled at the boy's lost looking expression, although hearing a man's voice call out her name from the hall made her attention shift to where the voice had came from.  
" Jacob?" she called out and then started to walk there, carefully holding onto Shou as she walked along.

The man who had called out from before was standing there, his arms folded as two men had started to carry out a table.  
" These idiots have decided to take some of our stuff instead, Emily..." he muttered, before looking to one of the men.  
" I have a wife and young son here! why don't you people get that into your thick heads?!" he growled at the guy in question.

The man just turned to look at him and shrugged his shoulders oh so slightly.  
" Hey sorry pal...but it's either this or we turn you all out of this house, you knew that you had some taxes to pay..."

Jacob just growled at that, Shou could remember that his father's patience had never been much of a strong point.  
" We don't have enough money to pay the taxes, not since the government raised them again!"

The other man just scoffed at that coldly.  
" Well maybe you should think about getting a better job that pays more...afterall, it's not our fault that you're broke!"  
Then with that..both of the men left, taking whatever they deemed expensive; this included a bedside cabinet, a bookshelf, a few tables, some chairs, some paintings, a few lights and most of Shou's toys.

Seeing that happen before him now, Shou guessed that maybe this was when he had a faint idea of how important it was to have money...  
Emily had already started to cry while she still held her little boy; and it made his heart ache with sadness to hear her sobs, the only thing he could do to try and comfort her, was to snuggle up to her.

Jacob stood with a defeated look on his face, he glanced back to Emily and his once stern looking face softened.  
" Hey, hey...come on sweetheart it's alright, we still have a home and each other huh?" he said soothingly to her, pulling her into a gentle hug.

Shou looked up at his father as he comforted his mother.  
In his mind, Shou could tell that Jacob was just as upset at losing some of their stuff as what Emily was.. but the man was trying to put on a brave front for his wife and child.  
' _Who are you kidding Father? I can see right through you, you're doing the same thing I did..._' Shou said in his mind as he looked up at him.

Emily's crying gradually became little murmurs, then just finally sniffled and looked up to her husband, smiled a little and nodded.  
" Y-you're right sweetheart... but..but what are we going to do when we have to pay the taxes again?"

" We'll manage, trust me Emily...I've gone through worse fixes in the past than this, everything will be okay I promise" came her husband's gentle reply.

Shou almost seemed to cringe at the dreaded **_' I promise..'_** and just looked down at the ground.  
' _I promise.. why did it have to be those fated words?_' he frowned inwardly out of regret.  
Those had afterall, been the same words that he had said to Ed, Al, Nina and Alexander earlier...words that he had intended to keep and had ended up propelling him and Alexander into this strange place that seemed to resemble Shou's memories, only for the dog to disappear without a trace and leave Shou in this place without a clue on what to do.

" Well alright.." came the young woman's reply, along with one more sniffle and an accompaning smile.  
" Come on, we better go back in.. Shou seems to be getting restless.." she said quietly and walked back into the house while holding onto Shou, Jacob following not too long after.

A few days passed..at least that's what they seemed to be, Shou still couldn't quite tell what was going on..and he was still trying to think about it, when he found a drawing book with some pencils on the ground and a note lying next to them.  
" To Shou...Happy third birthday, love from Mommy and Daddy" he read out and sat down on the ground.  
" My third birthday..." he said absently and flicked open the drawing book, picking up one of the pencils and started to scribble.  
" That's right, I remember now...they repossessed some of our things just two days before my third birthday; as a result, the only thing I got as presents were this and the teddy that Mother made for me"

He scribbled a strange pattern on the paper, before turning his attention to a book that lay just a few steps away from him.  
" And if I remember rightly, this is also when I found my father's alchemy book..." he grinned slightly and stood up, running over to the lone book that was just there, once he got it in his hands, he then flicked open the book to find that it had landed on some transmutation circles he knew very well.

He looked down at the pages with child-like interest, his child mind had never been able to understand all of the writing that was in the book, back then he had only ever cared about the 'pretty' pictures that were in there.  
' _I had the doors to knowlege and power right there inbetween my hands...yet back then I was too young to even grasp it and take it by the reigns, let alone understand what it was all about..._' the grin Shou had was starting to widen, and his eyes seemed to sparkle with glee.  
' _Those Elric brothers, they weren't that much older than me when they got into alchemy...and yet they understood all of this information; they really are geniuses...really_' Shou had then started to walk back over to where his drawing book was.

He then laid the alchemy book down beside the drawing book, making sure that it was on the page he wanted.  
Shou then started to sketch out one of the circles.  
' _And me at this age? heh...the only thing I ever wanted to do was draw these weird yet wonderful circles_' he thought to himself as he concentrated on drawing the circle, stepping back to have a look at it once it was finished.  
" Hmm, not quite perfect...the lines look a little bit jagged" he mumbled, a little pout forming on his face as he tried drawing another circle, and another circle...and another circle.  
Pretty soon Shou found that he'd done nothing but a page full of attempted transmutation circles.  
He couldn't help but smile half-heartily at that, it would seem that back then; destiny was driving him towards alchemy...he just didn't see it at the time, back then, these drawings of circles weren't transmutation circles to him...they were works of art.

In the days that came after that, he had found himself drawing more of his 'works of art' in the drawing book, this then spread to drawing them on the wooden floor and then on the wall.  
Could this of been the earliest form of Shou's insane side showing? not even Shou knew for certain...but seeing all of those circles were starting to become very un-nerving.  
His adult mind felt relieved when his mother and father washed the circles off of the wall and floor, yet at the same time..he could feel how upset his young mind was at having that happen.  
" Mommy, why'd you have to wipe them away? they weren't hurtin' anyone!" Little Shou cried up at his mother as she just knelt down and gave him an apologetic hug.

" I'm sorry Shou sweetie...but you just don't go drawing on the wall or the floor, you're supposed to draw in the drawing book that Mommy and Daddy got especially for you" Emily said, her tone was so soft and gentle; yet her expression was one full of worry.  
" And you know how Daddy gets when you draw those circles..." she said, hugging him closely.

Shou looked up at his mum in silence for a few minutes before hugging back, burying his face into her chest and sobbing quietly.  
Back then he couldn't understand why his dad hated it whenever Shou drew transmutation circles.. but if Shou had guessed right, then the worst was still to come and then he'd probably realise why his father had been so against it.

More time seemed to pass quickly for the man trapped in his younger self's body and before he knew it, he had just relived his fourth birthday.  
Shou also found that his younger self was still intent on drawing transmutation circles...as well as strange animals.  
Looking at them made him bite his lip slightly as he studied a picture of a creature that seemed to resemble a dog, yet it sported a long mane going all the way down it's back.  
' _Looks like I always was fascinated by the possibility of mixed animals..._' he mused to himself, before sighing and placing the piece of paper down on the ground.  
He then found himself walking over to the place where his father kept the alchemy book, he'd done this so many times by now.. it was like a habit he couldn't get out of.  
Giggling happily to himself as he picked up the book, Shou then hurried back to his usual spot in his bedroom, plonking himself down on the floor and flicking open both books, then he picked up a pencil and started to scrawl a picture of a transmutation circle.

However, unlike all those other times...this time Jacob caught Shou in the act of putting his alchemy book back.  
Understandably, Shou's father wasn't very happy at this.  
" Shou! what have me and your mother told you a thousand times?!" he bellowed as he came pacing towards the small startled boy.  
" Don't dabble in things you don't understand!" he shouted, snatching the alchemy book from Shou's chubby hands in one swift motion.  
Shou just let out a pathetic **_'Sorry'_** in response, balling both of his hands into tiny little fists.. but Jacob just shook his head.  
" No...because you'll just go and do the same thing over and over again, no matter how many times we tell you not to do it, you'll still do it anyway; well maybe this will make you see..." Jacob's eyes narrowed and marched out of his and Emily's room and headed to Shou's bedroom.

Shou hesistated for a while, then his eyes widened as he heard the rustling of paper.  
" N-no.." he muttered at first, he then broke into a sprint towards his room.  
" No no no no no no!" he found himself blabbering uncontrollably.. in his adult mind, Shou just mentally sighed in despair...he should of seen it coming.  
Before he had a chance to reach his bedroom's door, his father marched past him, a stack of papers in his arms.  
It didn't take a genius to guess what they had on them, and now Mr. Tucker SR. was heading towards the living room.  
Shou skidded to a stop, turned on his heels and charged after his father.  
" Daddy don't do it!" he cried out, but it was too late..

Jacob had thrown all of Shou's pictures into an already lit fire-place.  
Shou could only stare wide-eyed, his mouth agape as he saw all of his hard work get consumed by flames.  
His 'pretty' patterns, his weird yet wonderful creatures.. they all became victims of a firey end.  
After the fire died down slightly, Jacob walked over to Shou, then knelt down so that he was eye level with the boy and put his hands carefully on the boy's shoulders.  
" Now Shou...don't get me wrong, that was hard for me too; But I had to make you see somehow...that stuff that you were drawing, it's not a toy and if you don't understand how it works, you could get hurt or worse...and me and your mother wouldn't want that to happen to you, do you understand now?" he asked, his tone of voice now soft.

Shou was still shocked from seeing his masterpieces get burnt to a crisp, the small child started to sob.  
First they were tiny little murmurs.. but then those became full blown sobs..and finally it became a very loud wail.  
How could his father do that?! those were his drawings, he had no right to burn them just like that.

Jacob just watched Shou as he wailed uncontrollably, the man's face suddenly started to show a look of guilt as he realised what he'd just gone and done.  
" Shou...I know that you liked to draw those things but if you get too obsessed with those things, they'll lead to nothing but trouble...can you understand what I'm saying?" he asked, his tone still remaining gentle.

Shou's wailing subsided a little as he listened to his father's words, big salty tears rolled down his now rosey-cheeked face as he sniffled and wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his jumper.  
" I...I..." he stuttered at first, but then nodded.  
" I understand Daddy"

Jacob smiled gently at that and ruffled Shou's hair softly.  
" That's my boy.. now come on, let's go and see if your mom's made dinner yet, hmm?"

Shou just sniffled and nodded in response, he then held onto his father's hand and walked into the kitchen where Emily was already sitting at the table.

The rest of the day had gone by rather uneventful, although after that Shou's young self was slightly different after that incident.  
He had become even more quieter and seemed to drift about in a daze, not really knowing what to do with himself, such behaviour had come to his mother's attention.

It took her about a week, but she finally spoke up one day.  
" Shou honey... I know you're still upset about what happened..but you have to understand that Daddy was just angry, he wasn't thinking straight..and you know he's sorry about what he did"

Shou's adult mind only wished that he could agree with his mother and try to cheer up his younger self, but such a thing didn't look like it was going to happen, so he could only watch and listen.  
" But...my drawings.. my work.." came the boy's sad sounding reply.

Emily just knelt down to Shou, a soft and understanding expression was on her face.. it was at these times that she reminded adult Shou of Nina..that's probably why he loved both his mother and daughter more than anyone else.  
" Sweetheart.. there's much more important things in life than just work.." she then closed her eyes, smiled and brought out the teddy bear from behind her back.  
" Look...she's been missing you, you know?" she said, chuckling gently.

Shou stared at the teddy-bear with wide-eyes, it had been the one that his mother had given him for his third birthday; he hadn't even spent time with it after the recent obsession with the circles.  
He then felt his bottom lip wobble as he then held out his arms and pulled the teddy into a gentle embrace.  
" I'm sorry..." he murmured to the bear, closing his eyes tight and cradling it in his arms.  
" I didn't mean to ignore you, I still love you!"  
He then opened his eyes and looked to his Mum with a worried expression.  
" She...she still loves me, doesn't she Mama?" he asked.

Emily laughed in response and then nodded, stroking Shou's mousey-brown coloured hair gently.  
" Of course she does sweetie, I told her all about it"

A smile spread across Shou's chubby little face, he then ran forward and hugged his Mum, the teddy also ended up joining in with the hug.  
" Thank you Mommy!"

Emily just did a warm smile in response and hugged her little boy back.  
" You're welcome Shou, I'm glad you're feeling much better again"

And so several more weeks seemed to pass, this time Shou found himself carrying around the teddy bear that his mother had given him.  
Inside Shou's mind, he couldn't help but smile warmly as he relived all the times he spent with the teddy.  
Everyday he always sat her down next to him whenever he ate, he played ' ring around the roses' with her and hide and seek...even if half of the time that game seemed rather one sided.  
And whenever he settled down to sleep, he always made sure that the teddy bear was nestled comfortably beside him and always made sure to tuck her in so that she wouldn't fall out of bed.  
The two of them were inseperable, and Shou was once again a happy little boy finally having a friend as such, to look after and play with.

However while outside one day, a nasty stray dog had come up and grabbed ahold of Shou's teddy then ripped it open, much to Shou's horror.  
After getting the dog to drop his teddy, Shou then chased off the filthy beast in a screaming rage before running back to the teddy.  
His eyes had started to well up with tears as he looked at the stuffing that had come from his beloved teddy, as well as the nasty rip that was down the bear's stomach.  
Gathering up the stuffing and the teddy, Shou then ran to his mother in a crying fit.  
" Mama, my teddy, a...a nasty dog came...and it...it hurt her!" he wailed, tears rolled down his face as he held up the broken teddy to Emily.

" Maww Shou..." Emily ruffled his hair gently before taking the teddy into her hands.  
" It'll be alright sweetheart, Mommy can fix her" she said, giving him a reassuring smile and walking off towards the living room.

Shou sniffled a little before quickly following his mother, she could fix his teddy? but how?! he wanted to know.  
When he reached the living room, Shou looked over to his mother who was sitting in an armchair.  
She had a needle and some thread, as well as a basket of wool beside her, by the looks of it..she had just finished putting the stuffing back into the teddy's body.  
Although little Shou's eyes widened when he saw the needle.  
" Mommy, you're not going to hurt her are you? she's very sensitive, and...and she doesn't like getting hurt"

Emily just shook her head and smiled gently at her little boy.  
" No, don't worry.. she's sleeping at the moment so she won't feel anything, I just need to do this so that she'll be all better..."  
She then began to carefully sew up the teddy bear's 'wound' with the needle, taking extra care to make sure she didn't lose the stitching.  
" Now Shou.. sewing things like this can be really easy, you just have to put your mind to it..and everything will turn out fine"  
Eventually she grinned and held the now-fixed teddy out to Shou.  
" There we are! as good as new"

Shou looked to the teddy bear, his mother was right.. the teddy's stomach was all stitched up again and it looked as if nothing had happened to it, his beloved teddy was as good as new....no..maybe even better than that!  
He smiled and gently cuddled the bear, being careful not to 'wake' her from her sleep.  
" Thank you Mommy, she looks all happy and healthy"  
He then grinned, a determined expression forming on his face..  
" I'll never let any smelly old doggy get her ever again...if they do, then I'll give them a smacked bottom!" he then just did a little nervous laugh.  
" Or just chase them away like I did today"

Emily laughed at that and hugged her little boy again.  
" That's my little Shou, you'll be a good Daddy someday, I just know it..." she said and kissed him all motherly-like on the forehead.

Inside his mind, Shou could only smile half-heartily at that, his mother's words hurting him slightly as he thought about the earlier situation he had been in.  
' _I'm a good father?_' he said inwardly to himself.  
' _If I'm such a good father...then why did I nearly end up using my own child as an ingredient for a talking chimera? surely a loving father would never use his own family as ingredients in experiments even if there was no other choice...would he?_' Shou could only contemplate on these questions, since he knew no one could ever answer them.

Before he knew it, he had found that the surroundings had changed again, the living room had been arranged in a different way and he found that he wasn't as short as he was before, a brief look in the closet's mirror seemed to say that he was around six years old now.  
The clothes he was dressed in had suggested that he had just got home from school.  
" Mommy I'm home!" Shou called out as he walked to the kitchen.  
He found Emily sitting at the table, a lost looking expression on her face.  
" Mommy?"

Emily seemed to snap out of her day-dream and did a small smile over to Shou.  
" Oh, hello there sweetie; e-heh sorry I didn't hear you come in, I've just been thinking about some thing's lately..."

Shou just did an understanding smile to his mother, he then pulled up a chair and sat down.  
" Where's Daddy? it's almost dinner time...is he doing some studying again?" Shou asked, looking around before looking back to Emily.

The smile Emily had became a sad one and she looked down.  
" Well Shou...that's what I wanted to tell you; Daddy's not here anymore, he left earlier today..."

Shou's eyes widened at that.  
" He left?! wh-why?" he exclaimed, life had been going okay for them so far..why would Jacob just suddenly up and leave them just like that?  
Shou couldn't understand it.

" Well...he said that it was to find a job that paid good money, that way we'll finally have a better income and a much better life" Emily replied, reaching forward and stroking Shou's hair.  
" I know it seems so sudden Shou...but we just have to trust your father on this one, I'm sure he'll come back soon"

Shou didn't say anything in response, other than just a nod...deep inside his mind, Shou was trying to remember what his father had gone to get a job as...yet at the moment the answer just wasn't coming to him.  
That night, their dinner had been very silent, both Shou and Emily had just concentrated on eating...maybe Jacob leaving had came as a big shock to them, yet they knew that he was still alive so that was slightly comforting.

After dinner, Shou had made his way to his parents room, the place where his father had kept all of those books on alchemy.  
Although it came to his surprise that there wasn't a single book to be found in the room, nor were there any more alchemy books in his father's old study room.  
It was then Shou's eyes widened as he realised what job his father had gone to take up; the very thing that Jacob had told Shou himself not to dabble in...alchemy.  
Shou's adult mind now remembered this event well and he sighed inwardly in despair.  
' _And it all started here..._' he thought to himself as he stared at the bare spaces in the otherwise empty study.

**To be continued!**

Authors Notes: More of Shou's past to come in the next chapter!


	5. Growing Pains

**Alternative Choice.**

**By Rebecca Mason.**

**Authors Notes: So Shou's father left to get a job in alchemy huh? and what did Shou mean when he said ' and it all started here?' read on to find out! **

**Shou belongs to Hiromu Arakawa.  
****Jacob Tucker, Mr. Briggs, Tigerlily and Emily Tucker belong to me ( Rebecca Mason)**

**Chapter 5.**

**A trip down memory lane part 2.**

**Growing Pains. **

After Shou's father had left to get some kind of job that used alchemy, the only people in the house where Emily and Shou.  
The months seemed to fly by quickly as Shou and his mother adjusted to life without Jacob, although it wasn't the most easiest thing to do;  
Everyday when Shou returned home from school, it was odd to not hear his father's voice say 'hello' to him as he stepped in through the front door.

And it definately wasn't the same at the dinner-table...  
While Emily and Shou occasionally had their own little conversations across it, there was always an empty space where Jacob should of been.  
Jacob's casual-tone of voice was no longer there to add to the talks, his thoughts and opinions on things, his hearty laughs...they were gone.

By habit, Shou sometimes found himself walking to his father's study with a newspaper, only to arrive there and then realise that the person who used to frequent the room wasn't there anymore.  
Not having his father there was a very big change for the young child, but he tried his best not to let it bother him too much.

Emily however, was taking things a fair bit differently.  
For her, every waking day became painful when she realised that Jacob still hadn't returned home...she tried her best to put on a strong front when in front of Shou.  
But one summer evening in June, he could hear her sobbing as she cooked supper, the sobs from her hurt both young and adult Shou's soul.

" Mommy..." the young child seemed to murmur as he peeked his head around the door, his expression was one of pure worry.

Emily's eyes widened as she saw that Shou had heard her crying and quickly wiped her eyes.  
' _Oh no! I have to say something...I don't want him to end up worrying himself sick.._' she thought to herself.  
" I'm...I'm fine sweetie; Mommy, Mommy was just slicing some onions that's all...e-heh you, you know that they make me cry" she said, trying her best to cover up her sadness.

Shou noticably bit his lip and a sheepish smile spread across his face, his mother had seemingly forgotten one very important fact.  
" But Mommy...we're having chicken soup tonight, that doesn't have any onions in it..."

Emily looked a little taken-aback at first, but then sighed sadly and walked to the dinner table; carefully sitting down and motioning to Shou for him to come and sit on her lap.. once he did, she just started to stroke his soft mousey brown hair gently.  
" Sweetheart...I didn't want to have to say this, but it's been over a year now and I'm just concerned that your father hasn't called or sent a letter; I'd understand it if he's been busy...but how am I even supposed to know if he's got a job or not?"

Shou wasn't too sure how to respond to that at first, his mother did have a point...Jacob would of at least let them know what on earth he was up to by now, wouldn't he?  
The seven year old couldn't think of any words to say, and the fact that no comforting words came to him made him angry at himself, he hated to see his mother feeling like this, and in the end he gently rested his head against her chest.

Emily seemed to smile a little and just held her little boy close to her, still stroking his hair; yet in her mind she was trying to pull herself back up out of this current stage of depression she'd got herself into.  
' _Come now Emily, look at yourself.. you have a seven year old child who needs you more than anything else...and here you are crying over your husband who must be doing all he can to help out his family_'  
" Shou?..."

The young boy looked up to his mother, wondering what it was she was about to say to him.  
" Ye-yes Mommy?"

Emily took a while before replying, she chose her words carefully.  
" Despite all of that though, we have to carry on living and be strong for him..." she said, only just managing to hold back the tears as she smiled down at her little boy.

' _Mother...I know you're only trying to be brave for me so that I don't worry about you, oh how I wish I'd known that back then..._' Shou's adult mind seemed to say as he gazed up into his mother's face, despite her gentle smile; there was sadness in her eyes..that was apparent enough.  
" And when Daddy comes back, we'll all be a lot more happier?"

" Yes...yes we will sweetheart" Emily replied, before closing her eyes and gently holding her little boy close to her, now cradling him lightly.  
" You, me and Daddy...we'll all be much happier when he comes home, just like we used to be"

The young Shou just smiled sweetly and hugged his mother softly, in Shou's adult mind however; the man just remained mentally silent.  
To him this was like a story that he had read before, it was a story that promised to have a happy ending..but then had a cruel twist of fate much later on.. and he was dreading when it did come.

Two days later, a knock at the door sounded and Shou answered it.  
" Hello?" he called out uneasily as he looked up to the postman.

" Ah! hello there young lad, this is the Tucker residence is it not?" The man asked, he seemed to be holding a big sack which Shou thought was full of letters at first...but then he realised that there was another sack near the postman's bicycle.

" Erm...y-yes.." Shou replied, he wasn't really one for socialising with other people.  
It wasn't that he didn't like to see people or anything like that, but being an only child and also for the fact that Emily could be very protective over him, he was just very shy around others if he didn't know them very well.

At that point Emily also came to the door.  
" Hmm? oh hello there Mr. Briggs..." she said sounding slightly bewildered, they only ever had mail come through on birthdays or when the rent was being called in.  
As far as she knew, no one was celebrating a birthday yet.. and the rent payments were not for another two months.

" Got orders to deliever something to you and the little one" The postman chuckled lightly and held out the sack to Emily.  
" Someone must of been feeling very generous with their money, here...this is all yours Mrs. Tucker, have a nice day!" once Mr. Briggs had handed her the sack of money; he then gave Shou a pat on the head and with a wave to both of them, he walked back to his bicycle and set off on his postal rounds.

Emily looked down at the sack then to Shou with a puzzled look on her face, Shou also returned the puzzled look, it certainly wasn't everyday you had a large sum of money delievered to you.  
" Well..." the young woman finally managed to utter " this...this was unexpected"  
She then walked into the kitchen, Shou following closely beside her, and when she got there; she tipped the sack up to see how much money they had got.

Both mother and son's eyes must of widened, there was at least enough for them to buy a brand new house!  
" I can't believe it...it's almost like some kind of dream" Emily murmured as she stood there, her eyes transfixed at the table.  
" But this isn't a dream..that money really is there.." she then looked to Shou, smiled and scooped him up into a loving hug.  
" Everything will be okay now sweetheart!"

Shou took a while to react but finally a smile spread across his face and he hugged his mother back, he didn't know where the money had come from.. nor did he really think it was all that important, but if his mother was happy..then he was happy too.  
In the weeks that followed, instead of buying a brand new house; Emily had instead used it to help fund for Shou's schooling, ensuring that he got the best education there was, as well as buying much more food so that he was a well-fed boy.  
Shou couldn't help but smile as he found that the food they had now, consisted of much more choice than what they could only afford a year ago.

Emily had also bought a beautiful pet cat and named her Lilly, it seemed to be a golden furred tabby with ginger stripes running down it's back.

Shou had affectionately dubbed the cat 'Tigerlily' since to him, Lilly sort of looked like a tiger.  
As the days passed, Shou could often be found carrying Tigerlily around everywhere as well as feeding and stroking her; this was the first pet he'd ever had.. and he loved this cat just as much as he loved his mother.  
For a long time, life went fairly well for Emily, Shou and Tigerlily; although they still lived in the slums.. Emily did her best to make sure the family remained happy and stable and all the while hoping for the best that Jacob was doing okay out there.

Pretty soon, Shou's adult mind started to feel the days slip by..then those days became weeks, then months..and eventually years.  
Some days just seemed to flash by so quickly..while others took forever in ending.  
One such day he got to relive again was his tenth birthday.. and on that day, another sack of money was delivered to Emily and Shou.  
And Emily still refused to buy a bigger house...Shou and Tigerlily were her main concerns and again, she did all the best she could to support her little boy as he grew.

Three more years of experiences and memories seemed to pass.  
Shou almost had a shock one day; when he looked in the mirror and saw just how much he'd begun to shoot up in height, he couldn't help but grin afterwards.  
" Give me another few years and I'll probably have to bend down slightly if I want to see my face in the mirror" he managed to say through chuckles.

Emily had been sitting in an arm chair just staring into space; when she heard her son's voice, she suddenly gasped and wiped her eyes before looking to him.  
" I-I'm sorry sweetie, I must of dozed off...what did you say?" she asked, an apologetic smile forming on her face as she looked over to Shou.

Shou just looked at his mother with a puzzled expression, however that puzzled expression became a worried one as he gazed at her.  
These days Emily seemed to look extremely tired, her deep blue eyes that used to sparkle with life had now become dull and seemingly drained of energy.  
The complexion of her skin was also really pale, there was no ignoring that.  
At that point Shou could of repeated to his mother what he'd joked about before, but right now a more serious reply was the only thing that came " Mom...are you alright?"

Emily's smile seemed to fade a little and she just looked down for a few seconds before looking back to Shou and doing what seemed to be a sad smile.  
" Of course I am sweetheart..I..I'm just a little bit sleepy that's all.. I haven't had much rest lately" she replied.

Shou wasn't convinced, he knew that something was wrong just by how Emily's condition was...he just couldn't understand why his mother was trying to hide how she was really feeling, from him.  
His older mind tried to force his younger self to say something; he wanted to say that he could see through her facade, he wanted to suggest that maybe they should go and see a doctor; that way if there was something wrong with her, then they'd be able to get it treated quickly.

However in the end; and much to older Shou's horror, the younger Shou just slowly nodded...however the worried expression never left his face.  
" Alright...but make sure you get plenty of rest okay?" he finally spoke up again as he walked over to her and gave her a gentle hug.. he was almost the same height as her now.

Emily just chuckled softly and hugged back.  
" Shou honey, I'm perfectly alright..." she then started to chuckle again as she thought about something.  
" You know you're just like your father...he used to worry himself sick about me as well" as she hugged her son, she closed her eyes tightly...almost as if it was to stop tears from escaping.  
A minute seemed to pass as both mother and son hugged, then Emily lightly pulled away; once again opening her eyes and looking to Shou; a sudden look of surprise appeared on her face.  
" Oh my..."

Shou's eyes widened and he looked around the room; had his mother just seen someone come into the house?!  
When he didn't see anyone, Shou just faced Emily again.  
" Mom?"

Emily grinned slightly; making her look a little bit more healthier than before, and started to giggle.  
" It's just dawned on me.. how tall you are now sweetheart, in another few years you'll probably have to bend down to hug your little old mother"

Shou just chuckled gently at that, it looked like he wouldn't have to repeat what he said to her earlier afterall.  
" Awww Mom...don't worry I think I'll stop growing sooner or later" he then couldn't help but do a cheeky little grin.  
" But if you want, I could buy you a step-ladder just in case that does happen" it wasn't normally in Shou's nature to joke about like that; but he did have the odd burst of it every now and then.

Emily laughed heartily at that and just patted him on the shoulder.  
" Hey! cheekiness will get you no-where my dear boy" she said with a slight smirk on her face.

Shou just chuckled in response and gave his mother another gentle hug.  
" I'm sorry, I couldn't help it"

Emily nodded and hugged back.  
" Come on sweetheart, I'm going to be making dinner soon, do you want to help me?" she then smiled warmly as a memory seemed to go through her head at that point.  
" Like when you were little, hmm?"

Shou wasn't going to object, maybe if he helped Emily with the cooking; it would mean less stress for her; And right about now, he was prepared to look after his mother as much as he could.  
He did a small little smile and nodded;" I'd love to help with the dinner, Mom.."

And so both mother and son set about making dinner that evening.  
Shou had almost ended up burning the food when he accidently set the cooker's tempreture too high...thankfully it was saved by Emily at the last minute.  
Jokes and laughter were exchanged as the dinner was prepared; it was possibly the most chattiest dinner that occured that night..even more than what it used to be years ago...and Shou loved every minute of it; yet deep down, he had an uneasy feeling that stayed in the back of his mind, but for now...he'd do his best to just enjoy himself.

And so the days seemed to fly by again, and in that time.. Shou's adult mind could see his mother's health start to deteriorate even more.  
But every time he suggested that maybe they should visit the doctors afterall, Emily insisted that there was nothing wrong with her.  
Pretty soon Shou had started to get higher education and Emily was the one that was paying for it; determined that her son got the best chances at having a good future, she also tried her best to keep up with the payments for the house, as well as costs for food.  
One evening, the poor boy was startled as Emily went into a nasty coughing fit and rushed over to her; worry was very evident on his face as he approached her.  
" Mom!"

Emily just looked to Shou with a weak smile as she managed to finally get the coughs under control.  
" It's nothing Shou.. I just had a tickly throat, that's all.. but it's gone now.." she said with a nervous little laugh.

All of this was starting to become torture for adult Shou, he could see exactly what was happening...and so did the younger one.  
But he felt like everything was out of his control; no matter what he did, his mother would still refuse help, nor would she go to visit the doctor's as her condition worsened.  
Shou could only watch helplessly as his mother's health and their money started to get even lower; He used to ask his mother if he could help, but she just disagreed; saying that he didn't have to worry about her.

And after all this time, Jacob still hadn't returned home; but Shou had started to suspect that the person sending them the money was in fact Jacob....but why wasn't he returning home?  
' _Surely he's got that job that he left to get in the first place, right?..why doesn't he come back? we need him now...we need him more than anything_' the young teenager thought to himself as he laid on his bed one night.

It was a stormy February night.. Shou would be turning fourteen years old in a month's time, but as far as he was concerned; there was nothing to celebrate.

Emily was now on her death-bed, her illness had taken a turn for the worse and she just didn't have the strength to carry on anymore.  
All he could do that evening was sit at her bed-side and watch as his darling mother went through her last moments of life.  
Emily just looked up at him with tired eyes; a weak smile was on her face as she tried to stroke his face gently.  
" Shou...please don't cry, things like this happen all the time" she said soothingly to him, her tone was now all quiet and feeble; another sign that she was beginning to slip away.

' _But it shouldn't be happening to *you*!_' Shou seemed to cry out in his mind.  
' _You still had a lot of your life ahead of you.. why didn't you listen to me when I said about seeing the doctor, he could of saved your life!_'  
The young teenager just sniffled, big tears rolled down his face; he just couldn't stop them coming.  
" Mom..." he managed to utter, his voice going into an upset squeak as he tried to hold back the sobs..he needed to get these words out.  
" You could of gotten help for this sickness...was it because you were waiting for Dad to come back?"

Emily just chuckled lightly and shook her head.  
" For the first few years I was...but then I realised that your father was capable of looking after himself and if he's the one that was sending us the money; I know that he's alive, that was enough to put me at ease...the only person I wanted to look after in the end was you, sweetheart.."  
She seemed to smile at him again and tears were forming in her eyes.  
" Because you're my baby...no matter how old you are, you'll always be my little Shou, I love you so much sweetheart...if I lost you, I don't know what I would of done; but now this sickness has got the better of me...I'm sorry for having to put you through all of this" the smile had now started to faulter as she tried hard not to cry; she didn't want to die like this...not in front of her beloved son.

' _Mother...you didn't have to do all of this for me_'  
Shou just smiled at his mother sadly, he then leaned forward slowly and kissed her softly on the forehead.  
" I love you too Mom; I always have and I always will...and it's alright, you...you didn't know this would happen, none of us knew.."  
He couldn't help but think he'd just lied on the last part of the sentence and almost seemed to mentally cringe.  
' _I did know this would happen...I didn't do anything about it because I was too much of a coward to do so, this is all my fault! _'

" Shou.." Emily paused for a while, seemingly trying to hold back a nasty cough; once she succeeded she looked back up at her little boy.  
" Could you do a favour for me?"

Shou nodded softly.  
" Of course Mom..." he replied quietly, wondering what it was; a pain in his chest told him that this was going to be Emily's last request, even before the words left her mouth.

" I want you to stay strong for me, take care of yourself and Tigerlily...I know that I'm not going to be there for you; but I wish you all the best in life sweetheart and I always have...take care Shou, my beautiful baby boy..." she then smiled gently at Shou, every single bit of her warm personality showed up in that final expression.  
It was then, that her eyes slowly closed; and the once energetic woman went completely limp.

Shou was silent for a few minutes as he looked down at the now-still woman, he suddenly seemed to make a murmuring sound...and in a few seconds, those murmurs turned into sobs; pretty soon he was wailing his heart-out.  
The last time he'd done something like this was when his drawings were burnt and when his beloved teddy was ripped.. but they were nothing compared to what he had just lost; this had just torn right through his soul.  
" Mommy....." he just managed to say through sobs " Mom..."

Tigerlily had been sitting on the window-sill throughout all of this, her ears twitched and she seemed to lower her head.  
It was said that animals could sense a person's feelings.. and it seemed to be true as the cat picked up on a tremendous feeling of sorrow.  
She jumped down and padded over to where Shou was and mewed softly.

Shou's had to wipe his eyes before looking down at the cat.  
" She's gone...she's gone Tigerlily" he sobbed, and picked the cat up gently, cradling her lightly as he held her close for comfort.

Tigerlily didn't struggle, but rather just purred soothingly; had she of been human..she probably would of been doing the same as him; since she wasn't, she would deal with it in her own way.  
Emily had been like a mother to her, ever since she got Lilly as a kitten at that run-down pet shop.. and now her mother/owner was gone.

Shou cradled the cat for a while, his sobs slowly subsided as he thought about what his mother had said to him, he did have to be strong for her now..but such a thing was hard to do when he thought back to how close he'd been to his mother.  
" Will I ever be able to fufil your request Mother?" he sadly asked the dead woman; already feeling like he was failing her.  
" I know you said for me to be strong... but how strong am I, if I can barely contain my tears at your death?"

**To be continued! **

**Authors Notes: Sorry for the long wait everyone, the flashbacks of chapter 5 have been taking quite a long time for me to write ( due to an on-going attack of writer's block) ..so much so, that I've ended up splitting it into three different parts ( chapter 4, chapter 5..and now chapter 6) :: nervous laugh::**

**The next chapter to come will be the last of the flashback chapters before it goes back to present day.. I just hope no one finds this annoying.  
****Secondly, I can honestly say that Emily's death and Jacob leaving his family were not meant to represent the Elric family in any way what-so-ever.. it just ended up happening :: sweatdrops:: **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter! **

**Next Chapter; Ghosts of the Past - Now that his mother's gone, what will the young fourteen year old Shou do now?**


	6. Ghosts of the past

**Alternative Choice.**

**By Rebecca Mason.**

**Authors Notes: Emily's death seriously shook poor Shou up...and as time goes by, just how will the fourteen year old be able to cope with only a tabby cat for company and without the mother he held so dear?**

**Shou belongs to Hiromu Arakawa.  
****Laura McKenzie, Jack McKenzie, Aaron Magnus, Alexis Hetworth, Michael Hughes, Samuel Hunton, Jacob, Tigerlily and Emily Tucker belong to me ( Rebecca Mason)  
****Mortimer Larke and Julius Loxias belong to Skye.**

**Chapter 6.**

**A trip down memory lane part 2.**

**Ghosts from the past. **

In the days that came and went after that, Shou made no effort to try and relive any of the events that happened; what was the point?  
The loneliness in the house was too much to bare, sure so it only affected him slightly when Jacob had left home...but now that Emily wasn't there, the silence was extremely noticable.  
Tigerlily was still there and Shou loved her very much, but there was only so much comfort in having an animal companion.. it still wasn't the same as having someone else to talk to, it was times like this that Shou wished that all animals could talk in human language..but that wish wasn't exactly going to happen anytime soon.

He hadn't been able to sleep properly at night either, everytime he closed his eyes; the dream would soon consist of his mother..and in every single dream, it soon became a nightmare that resulted in him losing her all over again..and every single time he awoke from such a dream, he was drenched in cold sweat.  
His mother's death really had affected him badly, and it continued to do so for weeks on end.  
One time he was sitting in an armchair in the living room; there was mirror that reflected into the kitchen..he looked into it and actually thought he could see his mother standing in the kitchen.  
' _It..it can't be!_' Shou thought to himself, his eyes had widened in shock and beads of sweat had started to trickle down his face.  
" Mom?!"

Naturally, he had then shot up out of the chair and looked into the kitchen to see if his mother was there; only to find that she wasn't..and when he looked back into the mirror, Emily was no longer reflected in it.  
" It was just my mind playing tricks on me.." he muttered, wiping his forehead before sitting back down in the arm-chair; however he was still feeling somewhat shaken up.

After that incident however, just being in the house had started to make Shou uncomfortable.  
His imagination had began to get the better of him as he sometimes thought he heard his mother's voice call out to him...or other times, he used to hear the dreaded cough.  
" I don't know how much more of this I can stand Tigerlily..." the teenager said one evening as he was petting his beloved cat.  
" Just being in this place is like being trapped in place of memories, yet..." he paused at that before speaking up.  
" I refuse to leave this place...even though it's doing me no good...am I really alright, girl?"

Tigerlily just mewed in response, she hadn't sensed anything out of the ordinary.  
Cats and dogs could often pick up on any supernatural activity that went on.. but as far as she was concerned, everything was just fine..the only thing she could sense was how frightened Shou was.

After a moment's silence Shou decided that it was enough for a day and decided to have an early night, patting the sides of his legs as a message for Tigerlily to get off his lap; the fourteen year old boy smiled when she did just that.  
" Good girl Lil, come on now...let's go to bed and just hope that thing's are better tomorrow, huh?" at least...that's what Shou wished for, at the moment 'hope' was the only thing Shou could do..wherever things finally turned in his favour however, was another question entirely.

Outside, although it was around seven o'clock in the evening; the sun looked as if it was going to stay up for a while longer...it had puzzled Shou at first, but then he realised that nearly three whole months had passed since Emily's death and the start of Summer was more or less just round the corner.  
' _Even though you're gone mother...the rest of the world still carries on with it's daily duties, yet...why do I find it so hard to do just that?_' once the two of them had reached the bedroom, Shou just gazed out of the window for a few minutes.  
' _Is it because I've stayed in this house all this time? have I just been treating it as if it was my own personal shelter from everyone and everything else?_'  
" But if that's the case...then all I've really been doing is stopping myself from moving forward" he said outloud, a deep sigh escaping from his mouth as he spoke.

Eventually he made his way over to the bed and practically threw himself down onto the soft bed cover then just laid there, not even bothering to get dressed into his pyjama's.. he felt as Tigerlily jumped up onto his bed and curled up beside him to go to sleep, followed by the sound of her soft purring.. that put young Shou at ease slightly.  
In the young Shou's mind, his adult version was beginning to have serious doubts about resting up for the night.. ' _I don't know if I should go to sleep...with all of those strange things that have been happening lately, it's bound to affect me in some way_' however as the hour pressed on, he began to find himself in a losing battle as the younger version of himself had started to slowly drift off to sleep.

" I've heard that alchemy can bring the dead back to life.." the young teenager tiredly said out of the blue...although whether he was saying it to Tigerlily or himself was anyone's guess.  
" People say that it's forbidden; but I don't understand why, I mean wouldn't people be happy if their deceased loved ones came back to life to be with them again? I know I would..." he then yawned widely before closing his eyes.  
" Then everything would go back to how things used to be, then Mom and me would be happy again..." Shou trailed off as he finally fell asleep, the sleepiness had finally set in and it seemed like nothing was going to wake the young lad from his slumber.

It must of been several hours later when Shou finally awoke, from what he could tell it was now the middle of the night seeing as the world had seemingly been thrown into darkness both outside and in.. the only source of light came in the form of a street lamp that was beside the house.. but even that didn't light up the room much.  
Nothing seemed to be out of place, although Tigerlily didn't seem to be on the bed anymore.. but Shou put that down to the fact that maybe she had gone to her basket...however as he sat up in bed, something just didn't seem to feel right.

He couldn't help but get this feeling that he wasn't completely alone, like there was a presence in the room with him...but it wasn't Tigerlily ( if she was there at all, that is) and it started to un-nerve the young teenager.  
" Ti-Tigerlily?" Shou asked, sounding slightly feeble as he looked out into the darkness of the rest of the room.. now that his pale blue eyes were finally getting used to the darkness, it didn't seem as if anything was out of place.

However...it was then that he heard it; the sound of faint breathing going all around the room and it wasn't stopping once; Shou knew that it definately wasn't him because whoever was breathing seemed to sound rather short of breath.  
" Who's there?!" Shou called out into the darkness, looking around frantically as he tried to find the source of the breathing..so far he wasn't having any luck in doing so.  
He then frowned as he began to wonder if maybe, his friends had came into the house after he'd gone to bed and decided to play a joke on him...afterall, it wasn't everyday that Shou Tucker went to bed early.  
" Guys...if you're just trying to scare me then it's not working!" he snapped, starting to sound somewhat annoyed...however in actual fact he was absolutely terrified and was currently clutching his bed cover very tightly in an effort to calm himself.

However the breathing didn't stop and that just made Shou even more scared than he already was, if it really had been his friends..they probably would of switched on the room's light and just laughed at him while saying something along the lines of 'fooled you!' ( sometimes being the youngest in a group of four boys was nothing but pure torture..particulary when it came to pranks) .. or maybe this was a new tactic of theirs.  
" Sam?" he called out, no answer.  
" Julius?" again no answer...but the breathing continued on.

Shou gulped audibly and waited a few seconds before calling out into the darkness again.  
"...Morty?" and for the third time, there was no answer; much to Shou's ever growing fear.  
The more he listened to the breathing, the more Shou realised that it actually sounded feminine...  
But before he could say anything, the breathing stopped and finally a voice sounded within the darkness.

" Shou.."

Shou's eye pupils must of shrunk at that...that voice was one that he reconised only too well.  
" Mo-mom?" was all he managed to say in a squeaky tone.  
'_ It's probably just my imagination..._' he thought, desperately trying to stay calm...he wasn't having much luck in doing so though.

" Shou, could you be a dear and switch the light on for me? it's been a while since I saw you last.." the voice then seemed to chuckle lightly.. but it seemed so different to how Emily's chuckling had been, there was some kind of nasty undertone to it that Shou really didn't like.  
" What's wrong? don't tell me you don't want to see your dear old mother? having a conversation in the dark isn't very polite you know"

'_ It's not that I don't want to see you, I want to see you more than anything...I just don't want to see the condition that you might be in now_' the boy thought to himself as he looked towards the place where the voice was coming from, he could clearly see the outline of his mother.. but the thought of seeing her made him shiver.  
She had afterall, been dead and buried for three months; surely her body would of started to decompose by now? Shou didn't really wish to find out..

Yet at the same time ( much to adult Shou's horror) the teenager had got out of bed and was now starting to stumble over to the lightswitch.. he couldn't stand it any longer, the temptation to see his mother was becoming too great.  
' _I know I shouldn't give in so easily.. but I've missed her so much, I just can't help it.._' he thought to himself.  
' _I need to make sure... I need to make sure that it's really her!_'  
Had he of had his own solid body, the adult version of Shou would of screamed in an effort to stop his younger self from sealing his seemingly approaching fate, yet he could only do that inwardly as the boy had finally found the lightswitch...and hadn't hesistated in flicking it on.

The ceiling's light could only illuminate so much of the room, due to the lamp-shade that was on it; so a lot of the bedroom was still in shadow..yet it finally showed the source that was behind the voice...  
Emily just sat there on a chair beside Shou's bed, her chestnut brown hair tied up in that same old loose ponytail, on her face was that same gentle and calming smile that Shou loved so much; although at the moment she was looking down and smoothing out some wrinkles in her denim coloured skirt so he couldn't see her eyes.. but it really was her and she didn't seem to be rotting at all!

" Mom, it's really you!" he blurted out and ran over to her with his arms outstretched, happy tears had already started to form in his eyes...it was too good to be true, but heck he wasn't complaining!  
Pretty soon, Shou was hugging his mother and resting his head on her shoulder; the tears were really streaming now, the relief and pure euphoria of seeing his mother again after three months had proved to be too much for him.  
" Me and Tigerlily have missed you so much!"

Emily said nothing at first, but soon just started to stroke her son's hair softly.  
" I understand how you must feel sweetheart.." she paused for a while before sighing in despair, what was she disappointed about all of a sudden?  
"But I never thought you'd resort to anathema..."

That got young and adult Shou alike; to freeze in shock... what was Emily trying to say exactly?  
" Anathema? you...you mean as in a taboo?" he asked..only to have his mother nod in response, she still wasn't facing him properly.  
' _But to commit a taboo, I would of had to perform a human transmutation.._' he thought to himself, frowning slightly.  
" I've been in bed all this time Mom.. how could I of brought you back if I was fast asleep?"

Emily just let out a sigh and finally pulled out of the hug.. was she upset with him?  
" Shou.. how could you even bring yourself to lie to me like that?" she finally looked at him and it was then that he saw her face fully...  
The complexion of her skin was horribly pale and underneath her eyes, it seemed to be a dark shade of purple...Shou tried as hard as he could to look away, but something made him look up at her eyes.  
They were still blue...but there was no shine in them at all; they were just lifeless and unfeeling in their appearance and it didn't help matters that her pupils were tiny dots in the middle of the irises, it gave her the look of a possessed person at best...and a living corpse at worst.

" But Mom, I'm not lying!" came the teenager's frightened murmur; he had started to back away from her as he saw the scowl that had now appeared on his mother's face, it was a truely horrid expression for Emily to pull.  
' _She's not my mother...she was never like that, even when she was angry_' Shou thought as he kept walking backwards...only to stumble and fall into something.  
" Ack!" the next thing he knew, he was facing the ceiling and there seemed to be two 'walls' at each side of him.

After that he just heard his 'mother' laugh like a mad-woman followed shortly by the sound of footsteps coming towards the thing that Shou had fallen into.. pretty soon she was just standing there, overlooking him.  
" Of course you are! since that thing you're currently reclining in happens to be my coffin" Emily said quite plainly, only to sigh in exasperation when her son started panicking and scrambling around in order to get out.  
She finally grabbed his hand and pulled him up quite forcefully and once Shou was standing upright, the thirty-something woman just shook her head sadly.  
" You used Human Transmutation in order to bring me back because you missed me...I can understand that" her expression had softened a little by now; but she still looked terribly ill.  
" But it's done nothing to get rid of the ailments that plagued me in life...Shou, I still suffer from that horrid disease and you've brought it all back by bringing me back"

Shou was beginning to wonder if this was really just a nightmare or not.. maybe his mother really was telling him the truth but it was just something that he was trying to deny...wasn't it? but then again, this 'woman' who appeared to be his mother kept switching between Emily's original sweetness to a much more volatile version, and it was seriously starting to confuse the young boy.

At her words about still having the disease however, his eyes widened in shock..if this woman was indeed his mother then he wasn't going to lose her to illness again, he'd see to that!  
" Mom, we can go and see a doctor this time.. now that you're back we can get you seen to and you'll be healthy again!" he looked to her with a hopeful look in his pale blue eyes.  
He then grabbed ahold of her hands ( they felt so cold!) and started to run along towards the bedroom door, however he soon found that she didn't seem to want to go and looked around to her.  
" Mom?"

" You brought me back Shou...so I'm your responsibility" was the only thing Emily responded with before she started to have one of her horrendous coughing fits and leaving her son to do nothing but look on in shock at her.  
Each cough seemed to get more severe than the previous every single time..and pretty soon she had slumped down onto the floor, shoving Shou away from her just so she could cover her mouth with both her hands.

Shou bit his bottom lip as he looked down at her pathetic body-frame, his eyebrows went up in worry as he now had a feeling of guilt.  
" I do want to help you Mom, but I'm not a doctor, you know that..." he muttered in a regretful tone.  
" I don't know the first thing about medical procedures, I'm only fourteen years old for goodness sakes! what if I was to mess something up and ended up losing you all over again?"  
' _Mother, why can't you see that a doctor would do better at curing you than I ever could? I'm just a kid, I'm not a genius..._'

Emily just looked up at Shou with those lifeless eyes of hers, the current expression she was pulling almost made it look like she'd been betrayed by her own son; it was one of pure horror...however that only lasted for a few seconds before she started to cough even more violently than before, blood had now started to come from her mouth and it didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon.  
The next time she managed to get the coughs under control.. she looked to Shou with an unfeeling and rather chilling gaze.

" Having a weak-will is not a good thing to have, my boy..." her tone of voice had dropped down to sounding really bitter, it was getting too much for Shou to handle.  
" If you keep on doubting yourself, you'll never get anywhere in life.."  
But she hadn't stopped there, when she noticed that Shou had started to back up towards the door; she just let loose with a half hearted chuckle.  
" You said that you wanted me back...but now you're abandoning me? you're abandoning your own mother?! just what kind of person are you?"

" I'm a person who wants to make sure that his mother is in safe and reliable hands!" Shou snapped back at her harshly, in reality he never would of done such a thing to his own mother...but this woman was nothing like Emily and she had put so much pressure on him, he was bound to do such a thing.  
He then reached the door and practically stormed out into the hallway, his hands had started to shake from the stress.. why was everything going wrong all over again?

" Shou, if you thought that things were going to go back to the way they used to be; then I regret to tell you that will never happen!" he heard Emily call out from the bedroom.  
" The world just doesn't work like that sweetheart...even you should be old enough to understand that"

Shou had soon reached the front door but stopped for a while, taking in Emily's words...she was right in some aspects and he did understand what she was saying, but it didn't mean that he had to agree with her fully.  
" Maybe that is true..." he started to turn the handle and smiled a little as the door opened to the outside.  
" But you said so yourself, you're my responsibility, so I'm going to do what I should of done all those months ago and get that illness of yours treated by someone who knows what they're doing..."

Before Emily could shout out anything else that would dishearten him, Shou ran outside onto the cobblestone streets.. unfortunately it was still dark outside and the street lamps only lit up so much in their dull golden light, giving the whole street a slightly creepy look to it; it didn't help matters that there was hardly anyone about...so it was completely silent.  
Gulping slightly as he looked around at the scenery, the teenager just sighed and started to walk forwards.  
' _You're not a little kid anymore Shou..you know that the dark can't hurt you and there's no monsters hiding within it that can grab you and pull you to your doom..._' he mentally told himself as he walked along the quiet street.

This brought back so many memories of when he was little.. back when he believed that there was a monster in his closet; he had even claimed to his parents that he had seen it more than once.. but they had just told him that it was his imagination.  
One night he had awoke to find it sitting at the end of his bed; only for it to go back into the closet when he'd screamed his little lungs out for his parents to come into the room; and another night it had followed him to his parents bedroom...but had backed off, growling in defeat when Shou had crawled into his parents bed for safety.  
But as time had gone on, he became convinced by his parents that it was all in his mind...Jacob had once told Shou that the mind was a powerful thing and maybe that particular 'monster' was living proof on what the mind could create.

However, if that monster wasn't real...then why did thinking about it send shivers down Shou's spine even now?  
No, now wasn't the time to remember childhood fears; he had more important stuff to worry about!  
Of course...that didn't stop him from becoming nervous as he heard his footsteps echo on the ground, it almost sounded as if someone was following him..and the faster he walked along, the faster the footsteps seemed to go.

As the fear kept on rising within him, the only thing he could do was try and mentally reassure himself that he had nothing to be afraid of.  
' _There's no-one there, it's just your imagination.. there's no-one there, so don't look around.. there's no-one.._' his thoughts paused as he found himself looking around.. just to make sure, sure enough no one was there which just made him sigh in relief.  
" There...nothing to be afraid of afterall" he muttered as he then looked ahead of him again and smiled in relief as he saw the doctor's clinic at the end of the street; it looked as if the lights were on so the doctor hadn't gone home yet, things were finally starting to look up!

He then broke into a run and carried on until he finally reached the building.  
Once there, he didn't hesistate in knocking on the door like a mad-man; only to jump back when the door opened to reveal a woman in her thirties with dark blonde hair that was tied up in a bun with two loose strands of hair coming down just in front of her ears..

Shou reconised this woman as Laura McKenzie, a woman who had started her career as a mid-wife nearly seventeen years ago.. and while she hadn't helped with delievering Shou personally, she had helped with the delievery of Samuel Hunton; a friend of his who lived down the other side of the street...and in a slightly nicer district.

Laura just looked to Shou standing there in the doorway, her grey eyes seemed to have a look of curiousity in them...which quickly changed to a look of anger.  
" Shou, just what are you doing outside at this time of night?" she asked and folded her arms slightly.  
Even though he was starting to grow fairly fast now, Shou was still just a kid to her and should of been in bed by this hour at least.

" I...I apologise Ms. McKenzie, but I really need a doctor" he then pointed in the direction of his house, he had to tell her what was wrong before she tried to usher him away from the clinic.  
" It's just that my mother needs seeing to and I was wondering if you or your husband could-" he trailed off as Laura's expression went from slight anger to wide-eyed shock, maybe saying that hadn't been such a good idea afterall...considering the recent circumstances.  
' _Oh great.._'

However instead of thinking the boy to be a weirdo, Laura just suddenly pulled him into the building ( much to the boy's surprise) and closed the door; once inside she called over to her husband.  
" Honey you were right, even Mrs. Tucker has come back from the dead!" the grown woman then ran over to her husband; a raven-haired man with green eyes who was just sitting at a table in the waiting room.

One of Mr. McKenzie's eyebrows raised as he heard what Laura had to tell him and just muttered something incoherent, shaking his head lightly in despair.  
" It's almost like we're all being punished for something that was beyond our control" were the only words that Shou could hear properly.

At that point, Laura and her husband just began to talk amongst themselves.. while the young teenager could only stand there with a puzzled expression that grew even more perplexed the longer he listened to them.  
'_ I only wish I knew what was going on here...I never saw any dead people other than my mother walking around, Mr. McKenzie's probably just had too much to drink_' Shou thought to himself as he then turned his attention to the window with a worried look on his face.  
' _And if I'm not going to get any help here...then I might as well get back to Mom and see if I can help her myself; I've already kept it too long...she's probably coughing up buckets of blood by now_'  
Shou then reached for the door handle and was just about to open it, when he heard the thunder of footsteps behind him and felt a slight clamping pain on his arm as someone grabbed ahold of it.. it was Mr. McKenzie.

" Whoa now kiddo.. you can't head out there!" the man exclaimed as he looked down at the young boy.  
" To do something like that would be like throwing yourself off of a cliff and I won't allow it, especially for someone your age!"

" Well I'm going to go unless you tell me what's going on out there" Shou merely responded, trying hard not to sound too impolite.. but when the person in particular was gripping your arm with such force, it was hard to be cheerful about it.

Laura just watched her husband as he noticably let out a deep sigh and let go of Shou's hand before he started to walk back to where he had been sitting before.  
" Take your time Jack.." she softly whispered to him..to which he just nodded in response while Shou also came and sat down.

" It was several hours ago.." Jack started up, the expression on his face completely serious.  
" Bodies had started to rise from the dead in the local grave-yard.. and when someone went to investigate what could of happened, they found some sort of circle etched around one particular grave" the middle-aged man paused to briefly scratch the side of his face briefly...which Laura had once said; was her husband's way of trying to cope with nervousness.

" You mean a transmutation circle?!" Shou asked as he shot a worried glance out of the window once again before looking back to Jack McKenzie.  
'_ So alchemy is behind this afterall, that explains how Mom came back from the dead.. but who could of started all of this in the first place?_' the young teenager thought to himself.. however, something at the back of his mind seemed to tell him that he knew who caused all of this.. but he was going to ignore that for now and just try and find out about the current situation.

" Yes! that's the word I was looking for" Jack replied in an almost eager sounding tone, much to Shou's discomfort...a tone like that really didn't suit the situation at all.  
" It was one of those transmutation circle thing-a-ma-jigs that alchemist's use...although this particular circle was one of a specific design..but I'm no alchemist so I wouldn't know what the heck it meant"

Normally, that would of been enough information for anyone else to just leave it alone, but Shou Tucker preferred to take things one step further and actually find out about these things for himself, he was a curious boy by nature; always had been and in adult Shou's mind, probably always would be...and upon hearing what Mr. McKenzie had just told him, that had just fuelled his curiousity even more.  
' _I know I have my mother waiting back at home.. but surely just having a look at that circle wouldn't hurt...right? ... besides, I'll hurry back home as soon as I've seen it' _he mentally told himself; in his mind that was a justifiable enough reason...wasn't it?

But the question was... how on earth was he going to get outside when Jack and Laura were being extremely adamant in not letting him go out? his mind wandered as he tried to come up with some kind of escape route.  
'_ I can't get out of one of the recovery or examination rooms; the drop from the windows would be too risky.. sneaking out of the back-door wouldn't work either, they'd definately know I was up to something.._'  
It was then that he noticed the door to the men's toilets and did a small ( though almost sly-looking) smile.  
' _Perfect...they'd never think twice if I asked about using the toilet; I'd just have to be really quiet when it came to climbing out of the window, that's all'_

Without further ado, Shou looked over to the couple as they had gone back to discussing things amongst themselves; sometimes he really didn't understand married couples; but that came from the unfortunate fact of having only a few faint memories of seeing his parents together before his father decided to leave the home and find a job in alchemy, dare he admit it...Shou sometimes even felt a little bit jealous to see others who were more fortunate than himself when it came to the topic of family, but he wasn't going to let that eat at him right now.  
" Erm.. Mrs. McKenzie, is it alright if I use the toilet? I kind of forgot to go before I came out of my house" Shou asked as the woman in question looked over to him.

" Huh? oh, sure thing sweetie.." came her simple reply as she then turned back to talk to her husband, whatever they were discussing must of been something of high importance...but most of it was hushed so the young teen couldn't hear what it was about no matter how hard he tried.

" Thank you ma'am" he said politely before hurrying into the bathroom and closing the door behind him, once inside he found a cubicle that was closest to a window and went inside it.  
" Now to escape.." he whispered to himself as he slowly clambered up onto the toilet seat and pushed the window open after taking it off of it's catch.

Yet... he hadn't even made his exit from the place and he was already starting to feel guilty for lying to Laura, she was a nice ( although slightly strict) woman who had been friends with his mother.. to be lied to by a dear friend's son just didn't seem right at all, what if she never forgave him?  
Sure so he was doing this for his own reasons but this was the only way he could do it, Laura and Jack would never let him out of the surgery while there were supposedly 'zombies' going around, not even if he asked...and they definately wouldn't let him go back home to his mother; considering the fact that she was supposed to be dead.  
" I'll apologise and give my reasons afterwards.." Shou reassured himself as he then saw that the window was now fully open and started to carefully climb out of the window, all the while trying to be as quiet as possible.

The window turned out to be a little way off of the ground...but it thankfully wasn't anywhere near as high as the windows on the second floor, plus there were thick bushes on the ground that would cushion the teenager's fall.  
Not wasting any time, Shou let himself drop down onto the bushes, wincing a little as he heard the snapping of small branches and felt the small coarse leaves of the bush scratch his back and legs as he landed on it.  
Fearing that the McKenzie's might of heard the noise from indoors, Shou panicked slightly and scrambled out of the bush as fast as he could before breaking into a run down the street, going in the direction of the grave-yard.

It must of taken around two minutes or so before he finally reached the grave-yard's gates.  
However, Shou felt a little cautious about going in at first as Mr. McKenzie's words about the situation kept resurfacing in his head.  
" It's impossible..." he just muttered " even if someone was to perform a human transmutation on one grave, it would just bring back one person, you can't bring a whole grave-yard of people back to life..." he still didn't know that much about alchemy but his mother had told him about the law of equivalent exchange years ago; explaining that it was a law that all alchemist's abided by.  
" To give something is to receive something in return..." he recited remembering how Emily had said it, however; something made Shou pause.  
" But...if someone did perform a human transmutation, wouldn't they still have to lose something in order for it to be a complete trade?" so much for gaining courage, that realisation just made things worse!

Pushing his fears aside for the moment however, the fourteen year old walked into the grave-yard...feeling somewhat glad that the skies were cloudless and the moon was full, it seemed to illuminate the entire place.  
Shou Tucker walked on through the lonely place, the gravel on the path crunching beneath his shoes with every step he took; he had to keep a look-out for the grave with the transmutation circle on it...well it wouldn't be hard to spot, that's for sure!

The search for the ominous grave just seemed to go on and on.. and Shou was finding it hard to see if he had made any further progress; to him.. a good lot of the grave-stones all looked the same, not to mention this place was just down-right creepy.  
' _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea afterall..._' the teenager thought to himself as his fear started to rise again.  
' _Besides...something about this place doesn't feel right..._'

Eventually Shou was just about ready to turn around and head back towards the entrance when all of a sudden, he could smell a faint scent of paint...and he knew that a smell such as that could not normally be found in a place such as this.  
Letting his curiousity be his guide, Shou walked in the direction where the smell of the paint was coming from...and once he reached his destination; the boy's eyes widened as he looked ahead.  
There it was; the grave that Jack McKenzie had talked about, on the grave-stone and the grave itself was a transmutation circle...both had been drawn in red paint, however the circle on the grave had been destroyed due to where someone had dug up the grave.

The young teenager just looked, both in horror and awe, as he knelt down besides the grave to get a better look at the circles; both had intricate designs ( from what he could tell) that seemed very different from the basic transmutation circles that he'd seen in Jacob's alchemy book when he was small.  
" It times like this I wish I had brought my sketchbook with me" Shou said with a nervous little chuckle as he studied the circle's details.  
" If dad had left his alchemy books at home, I could of looked through the book and found out what both of these circle's symbols stand for..."  
After having a good look at deciphering the one on the remains of the grave, Shou then turned his attention to the transmutation circle on the grave-stone; some of the words stood out more than others due to the paint...and it was when he read the name on the grave, that he actually froze in shock.

" Emily Daniels-Tucker...born 1858, died 1895; here lies a devoted wife and mother who was taken by a cruel wind of fate, may her soul be welcomed with a heavenly embrace into paradise as her earthly body rests in eternal peace..."  
It was then that his 'mothers' words from earlier came back to haunt him, mixing in with what Jack had told him and at the same time; the worrying thought that he'd had before, made it's way back into his consciousness.  
" I really did do this..." he muttered, his tone now going up into an almost frightened squeak.  
" I'm the one who brought Mom and all those other people back from the dead..."

For a while he just sat there in an almost slumped-like position as his mind seemed to whirl out of control; another part of Shou felt like laughing at himself for ignoring the facts when they were very clear from the start; emotions were bubbling up inside him as he tried to think about what he should do.  
Confusion, anger, regret, sadness, helplessness, guilt; these were the emotions he was currently feeling and it was making his heart ache, yet he had managed to stop the tears from falling.  
'_ I just don't understand it...the evidence is there to show that I did do this, but how come I have no memory of doing such a thing?_' both of Shou's young and adult versions thought in unison, it was something that had puzzled them to no end.  
He could of remained on that spot all night, trying to find the answer to this bizarre mystery; but the sound of a distant gunshot being fired into the air made the teenager snap back to reality.  
" Mom; I have to get back to her!" he exclaimed, remembering what he had told himself earlier about how he was going to go back home after he'd seen the grave.

Getting to his feet quickly, the young teenager broke into a run; not wanting to waste any more time than he probably already had.  
'_ By the sounds of things, people are already starting to take matters into their own hands by using violent means...why can't they understand that the people who came back are still the ones that they loved...'_ however he paused at that thought, remembering how his 'mother' had kept switching personalities earlier on...Emily certainly hadn't been like that in life, she just had one warm and loving personality, a woman who had done her best to ensure that her boy grew up happy.  
The Emily that had come back had only shown a small part of her original personality...but other than that, she was a completely different woman.  
Needless to say, Shou didn't continue with that thought he'd had previously...

The world went by in a blur as Shou ran back to his house as fast as he could, his footsteps echoing once his shoes made contact with the street's road again; a great feeling of relief spread across his face when he finally saw his home come into view.  
However....as he got closer, he realised that the front door was open....and he knew for a fact that it hadn't been like that when he'd left.  
' _Ma-maybe I didn't close it properly..._' he thought nervously to himself, a smile of the same nature forcing it's way across his mouth...so much for reassurance.  
Running into the house; Shou wasted no time in running up the stairs, almost tripping up twice in the process.  
" Mom, I'm back! see? I told you I wouldn't be long.." he called out as he entered the bedroom... yet the scene that greeted him made the teenager freeze in shock.

A puddle of blood was on the wooden floor, probably from Emily's coughing fit earlier...but there was also some furniture that had been upturned, signs of a struggle of some sort was very evident; and just looking at it sent chills down Shou's spine.  
" No...please no..." was all he said as he shook his head in disbelief.  
' _Just what could of happened here?_' Shou thought to himself as beads of sweat started to form on his forehead.

Had Emily thrown a horrendous tantrum when her son had gone out and, in her rage, just started to wreck the place before going outside by herself? or had someone found her?  
He didn't know for sure... but when Shou thought back to the sound of the gun-shot that he'd heard back over at the grave-yard, it just made him panic even more.  
In a moment's heart-beat, Shou then turned around and ran down the stairs at full pelt; very nearly crashing into a wall once he'd reached the bottom.  
" If she's out there somewhere, I need to find her before anyone else does!" he told himself as he started to run towards the front door.  
" That is...if no one's found her already" he gulped audibly as he set food outside once again.

It seemed to be drawing more towards the new day's dawn outside, the street was illuminated much more than it had been a few hours ago.. making it look a lot less creepier, much to the young teenager's relief...but right now something else was weighing on his mind..  
" Where do I go?.." Shou muttered to himself as he frantically looked in either direction of the street.  
" Whether Mom was taken by others; or if she walked out by herself, I still have no idea where she's gone..."

He remained standing on that spot for a few seconds, scratching his head as he tried to pick which direction he could go in, when all of a sudden a familiar voice shouted out his name, he spun around to look as three boys came racing up to meet him; they were his friends and fellow class-mates.  
" Morty, Julius, Sam...what are you guys doing out here?" was all he managed to ask.

" What are we doing out here? we were just about to ask you the same thing!" the dark brown haired boy exclaimed, this was Samuel.. he was actually the oldest out of the four, but his lack of height seemed to suggest otherwise; not that he made a fuss about it...much.

" I take it you heard about the dead people walking, huh?" a rather chubby-looking boy with greasy black hair spoke up.  
" It's not everyday something screwy happens in this city of ours; so Morty, Sam and me came out here to investigate before everything went back to being boring again" he said, giving a careless shrug.

The last boy, a red-haired freckled youth with a lot of zits; just did a cheeky little grin in response to what the other had said.  
" Julius is right about that.. but I also wanted to see if I could study one of the walking dead, it'd be good research for cell-reanimation"

Shou just listened to what each of the boys had to say, visibly grimacing at Mortimer's reason...dead things really didn't entice him at all, especially not now.  
' _But isn't that just toying with the dead?_' he thought to himself...only to pause at that as realisation hit him once again.  
But hadn't **he** been toying with the dead when he brought his mother back to life? as well as ressurecting those other people.  
Who was he to suddenly judge on what was right and wrong when what he did was almost the same thing? sure so he supposedly did it because he missed his mother rather than for research purposes...but he had still done it, so he wasn't going to break out into an arguement anytime soon.

However, he wondered how Morty, Sam and Julius would react if he was to tell them just who was the one who was responsible for all this; would one of them turn against him and try beating the stuffing out of him for committing a taboo? or would all three of them understand?  
" Guys...." Shou spoke up, doing his best to make his tone not sound uneasy..but it was failing.

" Yeah?" came their unintentionally echoed reply, their eyes focusing on him as they awaited his answer.

The feeling in the air at that moment in time was a tense one...or was that just from Shou's point of view?  
Shou spent the next few seconds in silence, running through every possible phrasing he could use...but he soon let out a defeated sigh.  
Even if they were his best friends, he couldn't tell them.. not yet anyway.  
" Do..do you know where they're taking all the reanimated bodies?" he finally asked.

At first; Mortimer, Samuel and Julius all gave him odd looks.. it wasn't like Shou to ask that kind of question afterall.  
Then again, he could be an odd boy at times so they merely shrugged it off.

" Yeah... Mr. McKenzie and a few of his workmates have been rounding up all the living dead and taking them to the outskirts of town" Samuel replied.  
" If you want, we could go there using the short-cut" and with that, he pointed out a path that led down a narrow alleyway.

Although the slightly older teen couldn't help but do a nervous chuckle.  
" It's a little bit of a squeeze, but it should be fine as long as you're not claustrophobic"

Shou looked a little concerned at where the living dead had been taken, one eyebrow raised quizzicaly as curiousity mixed with slight fear.  
' _So Mr. McKenzie's helping out, huh? maybe that's what him and Mrs. McKenzie were talking about back in the clinic...but why take all those who have been brought back to life, to the outskirts of town? what are they going to do there?_'  
Not really wanting to stay put any longer, a determined expression formed on his face as he started to take a few steps forward.  
" Let's get going then!"

" One word of advice though.." Morty piped up as he started to follow his younger friend.  
" Me, you and Samuel had better go down the alleyway before Julius does.." he noted with a slight chuckle as Samuel, Shou and Julius all looked at him questionally and asked **_'why?'_**  
" Well... if he went in first, I don't think we'd be able to get in at all!"

Samuel and Shou just let out a stiffled chuckle as they both broke into a run down the alleyway, Morty broke into a run too...but for different reasons as an enraged Julius chased after him, screaming at the freckled boy that he was going to **_'pummel him into a bloody pulp'  
_**It took a while, but soon the four boys reached the outskirts of East City; here it was easy to see that life out this way was more relaxed since the buildings were further away from one another, the air was cleaner and the intensity of the rolling green hills and farming land was almost overwhelming to a city dweller; and this was just at, what you could perhaps call, the crossroads between the countryside and the city.

Shou would normally of just wanted to stare in wonder at the scenery, places like this relaxed him straight down to the core...sometimes he even thought to himself that maybe his family should of moved to the countryside while he was still little.. but if they had, then he probably wouldn't of made the friends he had now and they were pretty much the only people that seemed to understand him and his quirks; so maybe it was a good thing the family didn't move after all.  
But now was not the time to be standing around, he had to find his mother before it was too late!

" But now that we're here, which way do we go?" Samuel asked as he stood at the edge of a hill, overlooking a run-down looking farm house.  
Just seeing that building made him a little nervous; what if they got into trouble out here, who would help them then?

Julius, who had just punched Mortimer after finally tackling the red-head, just looked to the right of them and pointed in that direction.  
" That way, I can hear people talking over there.." he said as he got to his feet and started to walk over in the said direction.

Mortimer just muttered something incoherent under his breath before standing up and following Julius, followed shortly by Samuel and Shou.

Sure enough, the mutterings of other people could be heard as the four boys walked along the grassy path; although what was being said was hard to understand and there were occasionally a few shouts from some men whose voices sounded as if they belonged to some of the people that worked at the local gun factory.  
As the teenage boys got closer, the faint smell of smoke reached their noses and got poor Samuel to cough slightly...what on earth were people having a bonfire in the early hours of the morning, for?!  
Eventually the path the boys had taken, seemed to lead down a small slope to a large clearing of barren ground, sure enough there were crowds of the town's men and some women standing around, some clutching flaming torches; a little way from where they were standing were big metal box-like structures with holes at the sides... two of them were already alight while one other remained unlit.. but it looked as if the people there, were currently preparing to set fire to it.

" Now what the heck is going on down there?" Mortimer asked as he peered down at the people and the metal boxes.  
" Is there some kind of celebration going on that we didn't know about?"

" Bonfire night came early, perhaps?" was all that came from Julius's mouth as he scanned the current scene that was taking place.  
" Seems kind of odd that they're doing it on the outskirts of town too.."

" Well this definately doesn't look like any bonfire I've ever seen..." Samuel muttered, his deep blue eyes narrowing slightly as he gazed at the two boxes that were burning.  
Something else also caught his attention and made him wince ever so slightly.  
" Guys...can you hear that screaming?"

The other three gave Samuel a look before doing their best to hear what was beyond the sound of people shouting and talking, it took a while..but eventually the particular sound that Samuel had pointed out, became clear.  
The sound of a number of people, screaming in agony seemed to pierce the air with it's high-pitched intensity..only to be drowned out by the roar of angry flames and the heartless sounding jeers of the onlookers that were stood at a safe distance..  
However, just as the screaming had reached it's highest point; it was harshly silenced...and only the sound of the flames replaced it.

But the most disturbing thing of all, that made it even more unsettling, was the fact that those screams had been coming from the inside of the burning metal boxes.  
Now...Julius, Mortimer, Samuel and Shou were big boys...they didn't cry like overly spoilt mother's boys at every little thing, nor did they scare easily at some cheap fright ( although if it was convincing enough, it never failed to make Shou scream and make a run for it but he'd never admit that in front of the others) but the very thought that they had possibly just heard a number of people being burnt to death sent an icy chill down each of their young spines.

" I thought they'd stopped the witch burnings a long time ago..." Samuel finally spoke up, giving a little nervous squeak as his hands started to faintly tremble.  
" I mean what we just heard...it couldn't of been"

However Mortimer shook his head and interupted his older friend by pointing down to the crowd of people.  
" I'm not sure how to answer that Sam, but it looks as if we'll be first-hand witnesses for the next burning..."

Down below, Mr. McKenzie stood up on a pile of logs ( like a kind of stand) and shouted to the other people.  
" Alright, let's get the last box loaded...herd the remaining walking dead into there like lambs to the slaughter!" he bellowed harshly...and with one wave of his hand, another crowd of people started to walk people that had been kept out of the boy's view before-hand, into the last of the metal boxes.

That just got Samuel to pale even more..so they had heard people burning to death afterall....the undead to be exact.  
" How could they just go and do that?!" he muttered, gritting his teeth slightly, the tears in his eyes were more than noticable...Samuel really wasn't good in situations like these.  
" Those were they're loved ones once and now they're just going to do away with them by performing some form of group cremation?!"

" Well it's happening and there's nothing we can do about it.." Julius stated, narrowing his pale blue coloured eyes at the scene.. sure he sounded so bitter about it but in truth, he didn't like this anymore than what his friends did.  
" Afterall we're talking about four teenage boys against a number of adults, we'd be lucky if we could get past ol'e McKenzie himself..."

Mortimer merely gave a grim nod of agreement and just sighed.  
" So much for finding a subject to use cell-reanimation on...by the time they're done with all the living dead, the only thing left will be charcoaled bone and ashes..." however he briefly looked over to see Shou with a look of horror on his face.  
" Shou?"

" My mother..." was all that Shou managed to utter as he saw Emily among the crowd of living dead that were being led into the metal box.  
At that point, he clenched one of his hands into a fist and stood up, he then looked towards the other three with an almost dark looking expression on his face, his clear blue eyes almost looked as if they were illuminating in the twilight.  
" We're going down there..." he insisted, his tone sounding determined...he had been searching for his mother all this time and now he'd found her, he wasn't going to let her slip away again.

Mortimer's brassy coloured eyes widened a little as Shou's reasons for being outside when they found him had finally become clear.  
" So your mom came back too..." was all he said before glancing over to also see Emily, yet he then looked back to Shou as a feeling of suspicion took ahold.  
" You knew about all of this... didn't you? this is why you wanted to know where the undead bodies were being taken..."

Shou was silent for a while before giving off an eerie-looking grin as his subconscious mind had told him that he'd just gone and put himself on the spot.. so now he had to explain himself.  
" Well it always pays to be perceptive..." he muttered before giving off a little sigh and didn't hesistate in telling his friends what happened...he really did need to get down there and fast!

" Okay, to cut a long story short...I brought back my mother; but I somehow ended up bringing other people back from the dead too..." Shou also went on to quickly explain about how he'd left his mother at home in order to get help..but had then got stuck at the Doctor's clinic for a while and had to escape before heading over to the grave-yard just to see what he'd done..and then about how he'd hurried home just to see that his mother wasn't there.  
Once his explaination was finished, Shou then turned towards where the crowds were and began to get ready to run.  
" Now... are you guys just going to sit there.. or are you actually going to help me?"

Samuel finally got to his feet and walked over to Shou, just to put a comforting hand on his shoulder.  
" Shou...it's not that we don't want to help you; but didn't you hear what Julius said? it would only be us four against all of those adults...we wouldn't stand a chance!"

However... Shou just shook his head and smiled slightly.  
" But you're forgetting, we have one thing that they don't have..." he then looked over his shoulder to look straight at Samuel.  
" And that's alchemy..." with that he lightly brushed off Samuel's hand from his shoulder and began to make his way down the hill.  
" Don't forget...when you have the power to do something, it's hard not to try"  
That had got the older Shou to do a half hearted smile slightly, so that saying had been in existence ever since he was a young teenager.. but even if the words themselves were strong...just where had the will behind them gone after all these years?

Julius, Mortimer and Samuel all looked at Shou before looking to each other and giving agreeing nods, although Julius had noticably gave a small roll of his eyes and Samuel had done an audible gulp, Morty had been indifferent to either opinion.  
" Well okay then.. but we can't promise you that it'll all run peachy..." came the red-head's response as he started to follow Shou, Julius and Samuel following after.

Once reaching the foot of the hill and hiding behind some bushes, Shou wasted no time in telling the other boys what his mind had been devising when they had been running down the grassy bank.  
" Okay.. Morty, Sam, Julius here's the plan; the four of us will head over to the last box as quickly as possible.. once there, each of you three position yourselves at the points facing left, right and centre and draw transmutation circles on the ground..then if the adults start to come forward to stop us, transmute a mud wall! and while you guys are holding them off, I'll find a way to get into the box and rescue my mom"

" Sounds good... but what about if they try coming from behind?" Samuel inquired as he pointed to a possible space where they would of been un-guarded.  
" Transmuting a wall is all well and good, but if they were to get in through an open space, we'd be done for"

Mortimer however, just shook his head at that and gave a cocky little smirk, he was more than confident when it came to his abilities in alchemy and now was the perfect time to show exactly what he could do.  
" Just leave that to me, I'll take the place closest to the back on the right-hand side...that way when it comes to transmuting, I'll be able to build up the walls for the right and back" however.. in his mind, Morty mentally grimaced as he still had doubts about how everything would turn out.

Shou nodded and gave a small little smile.  
" So it would technically be killing two birds with one stone? I say we go for it.." at that point the sound of something closing alerted the young teenager, causing him to look around and see some people closing the door of the metal box; well now was definately a time to act!  
Once he saw the people leave the burning site ( possibly to fetch more supplies) Shou looked back to Mortimer, Julius and Samuel.  
" Okay, they've loaded the box up...let's go!" he exclaimed and with that, the boys started to charge forward.

Running as fast as they could across the dry-mud ground, it didn't take the four teenager's long to reach the spots needed for initiating the plan.  
Shou had reached the metal box and skidded to a stop to watch as his friends knelt down on their designated places; each of them taking out a piece of chalk from their trouser pockets and frantically started to draw transmutation circles on the ground.  
Glancing back to the metal wall of the box that was right in front of him, Shou started to desperately look for a way in.. frowning when he saw that the lever to open it up was right at the top and out of his reach; but it had been obvious enough that it had been easy for one of the adults to reach it.  
" Tch.... just typical.." was all the young teenager muttered under his breath.

However, Shou wasn't beaten yet..as he also reached inside his trouser pocket and pulled out a piece of chalk, not hesistating in sketching a circle on the side of the metal box.  
He then placed his hands down on the outer lines of the circle and as the transmutation started, Shou concentrated on the metal hoping that he'd be able to manipulate the compounds within it in order to make some sort of entrance.  
Concentration was something Shou needed more than anything...yet with the ever rising fear of being caught by Mr. McKenzie and his followers, such a thing was very hard to do; however the fourteen year old looked hopeful when he saw the metal begin to deconstruct itself and twist into an entirely new shape.

When the alchemic energy died down, Shou grinned widely when he saw that the metal's had managed to take on the shape of some kind of flower with large petals.. and in the centre was a hole that he could easily crawl through.  
With that, Shou looked around to his friends to let them know that he'd made a breakthrough.  
" Alright guys, I'm going in... you know what to do if the adults start coming towards the site, good luck!" and upon breifly seeing the other boys do a thumbs-up in response, Shou then clambered up one of the metal 'petals' and scrambled through the hole leading into the box.

Once he'd crawled inside, Shou paled a little as he saw the majority of people in this metal death-trap; men, women and even some children stood around and talked to one another while others were trying to pathetically claw their way out.  
Their complexions were just as pale as what Emily's had been; complete with the purple rings under the eyes and the lifeless gazes, it was a truely chilling sight to witness.  
However, Shou only just managed to not let his ever growing fear get the better of him as he got to his feet and started to look for his mother within the crowd, occasionally squeezing past various people and receiving a few cold looks along the way...but those weren't going to stop him from finding Emily, not at all.

After what seemed like a few agonising minutes, Shou finally found his mother near the back of the metallic contraption and called out to her in a tone of complete and utter relief.  
" Mom!" before running over to the 'undead' woman, albeit stumbling a little.  
" Everything's going to be okay now, Mom...I've come to get you out of here" the fourteen year old said as he looked up to her with a relieved smile on his face.  
' _Thank goodness you're alright...oh mother I was so worried about you, I hope you can forgive me for leaving you for a while_'

However, Emily failed to say anything in response at first...all she did was stare down at Shou with lifeless deep blue eyes, a blank stare was the only expression that graced that oh-so pale face of hers, it seemed like another few minutes passed before she finally spoke up.  
" So...you finally decided to take me on as your responsibility, hmm?" the brown-haired woman asked in that cold tone that she had used during the confrontation with her son earlier on.

Well 'that' was slightly unexpected, shouldn't she of been happy about that fact?!  
Shou just looked at Emily with a rather shocked expression before his eyebrows furrowed upwards and he responded to her.  
" Well of course...look Mom, I know you're probably still upset with me for leaving you behind in the house but I can assure you that I didn't mean to be gone long! the McKenzie's literally kept me inside the clinic and refused to let me go out...I had to more or less escape from there" of course what Shou left out was the fact that he'd also gone to the city's grave-yard to see how Emily ( and the other dead people) had come back to life before he'd hurried home to check and see if she was alright...but the way he saw it, she didn't need to know that!

At this point, the teenager was almost ready to start begging in the hopes that Emily would finally understand and perhaps regain her original personality...the mother that he had known so well.  
" Please, you have to believe me Mom...when I found out that you'd been taken away, I was determined to find you no matter what!" he pleaded with the thirty-seven year old woman; a hopeful look was more than visible on his face as he tried to look for a sign of understanding in Emily's expression.

" And yet you choose to save her when all hope is lost?" came a young girl's voice from behind Shou...and when the startled youth turned around to see who it was...it caused him to freeze in fear.  
The owner of the mysterious voice in-question was a young girl of around nine years old, her hair was platinum blonde with ringlets and her eyes were a rather nice shade of green...unfortunately they were also lifeless and gave off a less than cherubic appearance.  
Her white party-dress made a ruffling noise and the gold foot bracelet seemed to click on the child's ankle as she stepped closer to Shou, her gaze just as cold and lifeless as Emily's.  
" It's been quite a while, hasn't it Shou?"

" Alexis..." Shou murmured in disbelief, oh he knew who Alexis was alright...she had once been a part-time playmate who hailed from the richer district of East City.  
Alexis and her sister Amelia had been kind enough to sneak him into the Hetworth mansion everytime their father was out working; thanks to them, Shou had got a glimpse of what life was like for those who were more fortunate with money.  
The three children had played together every now and then for two whole years...until one day, when news had reached eight year old Shou that Alexis had been killed in an accident concerning a horse-drawn carriage.

Amelia had been the one to break it to the bewildered young boy, saying that the twins had been going to a birthday party at the time...but Alexis had got too excited and rushed out to cross the street without thinking.  
Shou could also remember that he wasn't allowed to go to the funeral for Alexis either, it was only for members of the Hetworth family...and other high class aquantinces, heck he was lucky enough to get a hug from Amelia before the family moved away.  
Yet Alexis's body had stayed behind, buried beneath the soil in East City's grave-yard...until now.

' _How is her body still in tact? she's been dead for six years!_' he mentally screamed as he took in every detail of the undead little girl, every single inch of her body showed no sign of physical decay what-so-ever.  
' _This is almost hard to believe...if this is what I really did do with alchemy, then I have officially gone against all the rules...and succeeded!_'  
" Alexis...it's good to see you alive and well again"

However, it would seem that Alexis was less than happy about her particular situation as she marched up to the 'now older' boy and kicked at his ankle, only to scowl more when the teenager let out a surprised ( and somewhat pained) yelp.  
" You've got some nerve, how could you go and do this to all of us?!" the nine year old snapped as she looked up at Shou.  
" We were all dead, Shou! dead, buried and resting in what was supposed to be eternal peace...you've just gone and taken that all away from us with that little stunt you call alchemy!"  
But the little madame wasn't finished there as she barely gave Shou a chance to respond.  
" Thanks to your actions, you've condemned us all to be burnt alive inside this metal death-trap!" Alexis had to wipe her eyes briefly as tears had started to form.

Shou just remained silent as Alexis screamed at him and blamed the teenager for his apparently reckless actions.  
Deep inside the young boy's body, it deeply hurt him to hear Alexis say all of these things to him...in life she had been such a sweet ( although annoying at times) and mischevious girl who never thought bad of him, she and Amelia had even been like big sisters to the young Tucker boy; but now...  
" I...I..." he stuttered helplessly, really wanting to apologise to the upset girl...yet those words of apology failed to come and he really couldn't understand why.

However it was at that point that Emily walked over and rested a gentle hand on the little girl's shoulder.  
" Alexis, please don't cry...I know the burning may hurt when it happens, but after that we will have eternal slumber once more" with that a motherly smile made it's way onto Emily's face as she stroked Alexis's hair.

Shou just seemed to stare at the two for a moment as he saw that oh-so familiar look and gentle persona that he'd longed to see in Emily once again...why had she waited until now to finally show off that personality properly? and more so...why did it have to be towards someone who wasn't even a relative?  
As for them all burning to death in this place...well Shou was going to make sure that didn't need to happen, although it seemed that he missed Emily's reasoning that she would like to die.  
' _It's probably just her thinking that there's no other way out, yeah that must be it! I mean mother would never give up this easily_' and he definately knew that for certain, Emily had been a woman who had battled an illness for as long as possible, keeping herself alive just so she could look after her son...she hadn't gone without a fight and to see 'this' Emily practically giving up on the spot and resigning herself to her fate made the teenage boy shake his head in disbelief.  
" Mom...what are you saying? I've made an exit that we can all crawl out of...come on! Morty and the others are outside, we'll be able to make sure the others don't hurt you; my friends even know a short-cut home and then we'll all be safe!"

However, Emily didn't say anything and just looked to the side instead as she heard noises outside.  
" Are you sure about that?" was all she asked as she could hear the shouts of other people, her eyebrows actually furrowed up into a look of worry which made her look a little bit more alive.  
" Because it sounds like there's more than just your friends out there..."

Confused at what his mother meant at first, Shou also looked to where Emily seemed to be listening and concentrated...only to pale considerably as he heard the voices of the men from before, they'd came back to the burning site!  
However he couldn't let doubt take him over now and the fourteen year old just looked up to Emily with a knowing ( although somewhat nervous) grin.  
" They won't be able to stop us, we have alchemy on our side!"

The only thing that Emily did after that was look Shou straight in the eyes, a feeling that was definately unpleasant to the young teen since his mother's eyes showed no signs of life at all and said in a rather cryptic tone.  
" And how do you know that those other people don't?"

In the meantime; Mortimer, Julius and Samuel were still doing their best to keep the mud-walls up in order to keep out the now-angry civilians, however...Mr. McKenzie's voice seemed to boom out over the yells and shouts of the other men on the other side of the wall.  
" What is the meaning of this?!" he exclaimed before turning to one of the workers from the gun factory.  
" Marcus, bring this barricade down...nothing's going to stop us from saving our city from the unholy undead!"

" _Saving this city_? pssssh' you hear that guys? old man McKenzie's really gone off the deep end this time" Julius grumbled then blinked as Mortimer rolled his brass-coloured eyes.

The red-head then cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled out.  
" If anyone needs saving... it's those who have the unfortunate fate of being near you, you crazy coot!"

" Julius, Morty!!" Samuel hissed with a wild fearful look in his deep blue coloured eyes; he really couldn't believe the pudgy and spotty members of the group sometimes and this was just one of those instances.

" You know what McKenzie's temper can be like...if he gets ahold of us, we'll end up being the laughing stock of the entire neighbourhood!" the oldest ( yet smallest) member of the group still wasn't over the last time they'd got into trouble with McKenzie, that man wasn't against spanking others in public as punishment!

Yet before he could say anything else, Samuel was interupted by Jack McKenzie's voice; lightly furious was probably** not **the best word to use for his tone.  
" Why you cocky little...okay that does it!" after several nasty sounding thuds sounded on the hard mud, Jack could be heard muttering a few cuss words before speaking louder again.

" Marcus, forget the battering ram... I've got one more ace up my sleeve, Aaron!" he called out the boy's name into the crowd of people and it wasn't long before a strawberry blonde haired teenage boy came out of the sea of people and towards him.  
Jack just grinned and pointed to the wall.  
" I've got a job for you...some naughty brats have put up this mud wall and are stopping us from ridding the city of the hordes of dead people that have been wandering around... do you think you could help out a soul in need and do the honors of getting rid of this muddy obstacle?"

Aaron just scratched at his freckled cheek nervously ( Jack could sometimes have this effect on people) before glancing at the wall of mud and giving a nod.  
' _Why would they want to help defend the dead anyway? I should think we'd be doing those walking corpses a favour by putting them to rest once more..._' the young boy thought to himself as he studied the surrounding area.  
" That wall should be easy enough to get rid of with my speciality...but I'll need some form of moisture in order for it to work, does anyone here have a bucket of water?"

The three boys on the other side of the wall remained completely oblivious as one of the gun factory workers handed Aaron a full bucket of water, that had originally been kept around for use on the fire if it got too out of hand.  
" Thanks, this is perfect!" Aaron said, thanking the older man...and with that, walked towards the wall and tipped a fair amount onto the ground in front of the mud-based barricade.

Grabbing a nearby stick, the teenager sketched out the transmutation needed for his type of alchemy and then put his hands down on the edges of the circle before concentrating.  
Everything seemed to fall silent if only for those few seconds...maybe even a minute; before the soil where the transmutation circle was, started to bubble over and a small rumbling could be felt.  
Aaron just did a little smile as he began to put more energy into the transmutation, his attitude becoming a lot more confident as he quickly looked to Mr. McKenzie and did a thumbs-up.  
" It's ready to go!"

" I don't like this guys..." Samuel muttered as he just stood staring at their side of the wall, something about the silence on the otherside was bothering him greatly.  
" Things have gone too quiet out there, you don't think they decided to go back home...do you?"

Julius just seemed to let loose with a small huff and glanced back towards the metal contraption that Shou was still in.  
" I hope so...if those idiots are still around, we'll never be able to make a clean get-away..."

" Well if things have gone quiet on that side, then maybe that means they have gone..." Mortimer stated in a confident tone and then smirked.  
' _Maybe I was wrong...this plan has worked out for the better afterall_' he thought before speaking up again.  
" I guess our alchemy made a wall that's tough to break...of course I'll bet that they were trying to get in on the part that I made and couldn't get through, it just goes to show how good I am at this sort of thing!"

Samuel and Julius just let loose with fed-up groans in response to that and while Julius rolled his ice-blue eyes, Samuel just put a hand to his forehead and shook his head slightly in disbelief.  
However, all three boys soon turned their attention to the ground beneath them as the rumbling began, shortly followed by the sound of water rushing up from somewhere and splashing against something.  
There wasn't much time for questions though, as they then glanced towards the wall and realised ( much to their horror) that the sound of the water was hitting against the mud-wall with what seemed like extreme force.

" Awww man, now we're in trouble!" Samuel exclaimed and had already started to panic by flailing his arms wildly.  
" This is all your fault Julius, Morty... if you hadn't of said anything, we wouldn't be in this mess now!" he snapped at the two younger boys...in case no one knew, the Hunton boy had a tendency to lash out verbally when under pressure.

" Well I didn't think he'd react *that* badly!" Mortimer snapped back, normally for some adults it took a 'lot' more name-calling and disrespect before they snapped at the younger generation... unfortunately, it was now very clear that Doctor Jack McKenzie was **not **one of those people...

" That's the problem, you two never **_DO_** thin-" however before Samuel could finish his sentence, a weird sludge-like sound could be heard...and upon looking back to the wall, the sixteen-and-a-half year old let out a terrified screech and pointed at it.  
" But nevermind that now, we've got other problems!"

Puzzled by that, Mortimer and Julius looked to where their terrified friend was pointing...only to pale when they saw that their alchemy-made barricade was beginning to melt and it was then that their minds went awry... of course they had been in trouble beforehand but this just tipped the scale!  
And so far the only thing these three boys were doing, was standing around and staring helplessly over at their now-melting, alchemised mud-wall.

However it was then Samuel who let out a small huff and began to roll up his sleeves before whipping out a piece of chalk from his pocket and began to draw on the ground.  
' _Just this once...I want to be of some use, just this once_' he mentally told himself as he thought back to all the times he'd stopped Mortimer, Julius and even Shou from causing mischief around East City.

Out of the four of them, it was Samuel who had always been the good boy, it had always been Samuel who always wanted to 'do the right thing' and attempt to keep his younger friends out of trouble...even if sometimes it hadn't worked at all.  
But this time it was Samuel who wanted to play against the rules and actually help his friends by any means possible...and right now, those means was by using alchemy.  
" Well what are you waiting for?! if they're breaking their way in... the least we can do is protect out 'fort'!" he yelled at the other two, a wild look replacing the normally timid and docile look in his deep blue eyes.

It didn't take very long for Julius to respond to that, as he merely blinked at first before doing a rather evil-looking smirk.  
" Now you're talking!" he cheered and knelt down on the ground, taking out the chalk and began to sketch a circle on the dry mud.

Mortimer just gave a somewhat shocked look to Samuel in response to the shorter boy's words from moments before...not because of the fact he was becoming the new voice of reason for the group ( far from it...this was Mortimer Larke afterall) but because of the fact that he'd known Samuel back when the two of them were three and five years old; and in the red-headed boy's golden eyes...Samuel had never shown to have this sort of streak to him at all, but it would seem that Morty was wrong about that.  
' _You really can't judge appearances, I guess..._' he reasonated with himself before smiling to Samuel and giving a nod.  
" Right!"

Before long, all three boys were sketching transmutation circles on the ground...and just as the first lot of people from the other side made their way over the now melted mud wall, the teenagers slammed their hands down onto the outer lines of each circle and started to transmute more mud barricades just to give the older people a hard time.

Very soon, those men were running from rising walls or smacking into some...unfortunately Aaron was also there and on Jack's command, had started to transmute streaming jets of water in order to get rid of the newly formed barricades.  
It started to seem as if mud and water was flying everywhere once the ground started to become too moist for the mud walls to form properly and so Morty, Samuel and Julius had done the next best thing...make mud balls and actually throw them at the oncoming enemy.  
It may of been a childish strategy but it proved to be effective as a few people ended up being knocked down by those slimy balls of mud... and even Aaron's water alchemy wasn't enough to protect him as he also got pelted by some.

This crazy 'war' had been going on whilst Shou had been talking to Emily and Alexis... yet just as it seemed that the three teenagers could keep up the resistance, the three of them ended up being jumped by some tall men who had managed to get past the earlier onslaught of mud balls.  
" Mr. McKenzie, we got them!" called out one of the men as one of the boys struggled in his grip.

It was then that Jack came forward with a rather nasty looking glare making it's way onto his features.  
" Troublesome little punks..." he muttered as he looked to the boys as they squirmed around while being gripped by their captors, he then gave a nod to the man that had spoke up.  
" Good job, Roberts...just make sure that you, Lewison and Hughes keep these runts here...trying to sabotage our plans to help East City, really...youngsters these days" the doctor muttered before making his way towards the metal contraption, one eyebrow raising quizzically as he noticed the alchemised flower pattern...and the medium-sized hole that was now in the metal.  
" So... not only were you trying to make sure we didn't burn them; you were also trying to let them go free, too?!" he bellowed as he looked around at the boys with a rather wild expression.

Samuel just winced at that and started to kick around even more.  
" But Mr. McKenzie, you don't understand!" he started, about to mention the fact that Shou was in there... but he just got silenced by the rather irate older man.

" No buts! I always knew that you three were troublemakers...but this just proves that you're much worse than that, did you ever take it into account that these dead people might harm the living?! by letting them out, you endanger the entire population of East City or even Amestris itself!" Jack yelled, carrying on with his almost self-righteous sounding rant... before he was interupted by one of the other men that were holding one of the boys.  
" What is it, Hughes?"

The bespectacled man just adjusted his glasses with his free hand before letting loose with a sigh.  
" Aren't you being a bit too hard on these kids, McKenzie? I mean they're only children...I have a son at home who's just a few years younger than them for goodness sakes, they probably didn't know what they were letting themselves in for"

Jack just seemed to stay quiet for a few seconds before he finally spoke up again, this time referring to Mr. Hughes by first name terms.  
" I realise that Michael, but I don't think even Maes would go as far as this...and as for not knowing what they were letting themselves in for" he huffed and pointed to all the melted mud barricades and puddles of muddy water that littered the once dry patch on the burning site.  
" This looks like it was planned in advance to me...and naturally, a planned crime definately needs a fitting punishment..."

" What are you going to do?!" screeched Mortimer as he tried kicking at it's captors legs...only to get kneed in a rather sensitive area and just let out a pained squeak...however that did get Mr. Hughes to glare at Marcus Lewison...Lewison then rolled his eyes and whispered a 'sorry kiddo' to Mortimer...of course Morty was currently too preoccupied by the pain to even pay attention to the apology.

Jack just smirked darkly as he glanced at the hole in the metal before reaching into his trouser pocket and fumbled around for something...before pulling out small box.  
" And what better method of punishment than to destroy the very thing you tried to protect!" he snapped as he opened the small box and took out a match.  
" Aaron, Thomas, Joseph...throw the logs into the hole; we might as well take advantage of this opening, seeing as the ground's too wet now"

Aaron and the other two just nodded to Jack and did as they were told...although Aaron shot a rather apologetic glance at the three boys being held captive as he walked past them, carrying a few logs.  
'_ I'm sorry you three had to go through this... but if what Jack says is true, then maybe it's for your own good_' he seemed to say inwardly...he figured he'd just get clobbered if he was to go up to them and say it outloud, so saying it mentally seemed like a more painless option.

Pretty soon, the gathered up logs were sticking out of the hole that Shou had transmuted earlier... and Jack McKenzie stood near the metal contraption, frowning as he could see a few of the undead coming towards the hole in a desperate bid to get out.  
" And now... consider all of us saved, everyone!" Jack shouted out to the crowd before smirking at Mortimer, Julius and Samuel.  
" As for you juveniles...consider this a lesson in the basic laws of nature, the dead should stay dead with no exceptions!" and with that, he lit a match and threw it into the hole before running back towards the crowd.

Samuel looked completely devastated as he saw the flames begin to appear as the logs sent on fire within the metal box, and began to struggle in Michael Hughes's grip.  
" Please, you can't just...please just let me go!" the teenager began to yowl somewhat pleadingly as tears started to form in his eyes.

Mortimer's brassy eyes had widened when seeing what Mr. McKenzie had done and began to also panic, knowing full well that Shou was still inside that thing.  
And very soon even he started to struggle, but he wasn't about to burst into tears like Samuel had started to do and the same went for Julius as well.

" If you don't let us go and stop that fire right now, then Dr. McKenzie is going to be faced with a much worse crime than what we've been commited of..." Julius muttered rather darkly as he glared at both Michael and Marcus with those ice-blue eyes of his, however he also directed it at his own captor too.

Michael looked a little puzzled at that and briefly looked over to Jack McKenzie who was now being surrounded by the other people who seemed to be cheering him on for his 'good deed' ...but decided to at least listen to what the chubby teenager had to say and looked back to Julius with a concerned glare.  
" Okay then...why don't you boys tell me why that is, hmm?"

It was then that the boys began to tell the bespectacled older man the real reason as to why they'd came out to the burning site and also why they'd built up the mud walls in the first place.  
" It was all Shou's idea to come down here originally, he only wanted to save his mom!" Samuel explained, his panic seemed to be forever rising as he kept looking from Michael to the metal box and then back to Michael again.  
" We didn't mean to cause all of this trouble!"

" And now that moron's gone and set that...that 'thing' on fire, with Shou still inside it!" Mortimer exclaimed, pointing with a very firm hand, over at the box.  
" If he dies, we're not the ones who are going to be responsible for this..."

" It'll be Jack McKenzie and his merry band of idiots" Julius mumbled rather coldly, finishing off Mortimer's sentence...more or less.

Michael's eyes seemed to widen at that as the complexion drained from his face... surely these boys had to be lying, right?  
Yet as he gazed into their eyes, it was easy to see that their looks were far from kidding...and that assumption began to fade from Mr. Hughes's mind more or less straight away.  
' _They really aren't lying...aww man!'_ he thought to himself before letting go of Samuel and got Marcus Lewison and Jimmy Roberts to let go of the other two boys.  
" Well what are we waiting for, let's go and stop that blaze!" he shouted to Mortimer, Julius and Samuel before looking to Marcus and pointed over to where Jack McKenzie and his celebrating group were.  
" Lewison, you go and tell McKenzie what these boys just told us!" and when Marcus just nodded and did so, Michael just started to sprint back down towards the metal box.

" Finally! a decent enough adult who actually listens to us" Samuel said, breathing a sigh of relief before grinning to the other two.  
" Makes a pleasant change from the usual, huh?"

Mortimer just chuckled a little at that but then that smile faded as he looked towards the metal box.  
" Yeah, but Shou's not out of danger yet...come on!" and with that, the spotty teen began to run down towards the site in the direction that Michael had gone in only seconds earlier.  
And pretty soon Samuel and Julius were following suite, Samuel being quite hopeful that things were going to be okay now.

However...inside the metal box, things were far from okay as the flames had started to spread...and the poor undead person ( the one who had only wanted to find a way out) from before, was now screaming wildly as flames had started to engulf him completely...but soon, it wasn't just him, but several others that were also screaming as they too were set on fire.  
Shou, Emily and Alexis were still at the back of the box...yet they could see the horrific scene that was unfolding right in front of them and Alexis had started to pathetically hide behind Emily's legs in the ever-wishful hope that she'd be safe behind there.

" But I don't understand..." Shou murmured as he looked at the nasty sight of people running around on fire and winced at the horrific screams that seemed to be growing in numbers at a very rapid rate.  
" Morty, Julius and Sam were out there...they were protecting us" he carried on, through the flames and people... Shou could just about see the hole that had once been a ticket to freedom for him and his mother, the logs were blocking it and the flames would of made it very diificult to escape by now anyway.  
' _All hope really is lost..._' he mentally whimpered to himself as he looked towards the burning people and could now feel the tempreture as it began to rise even more, as well as smell the foul-smoke that was beginning to reach suffocating levels.  
" There really is no way out now..." the fourteen year old muttered while trying to hold back a frightened sob, he didn't want to die; it wasn't his time to go...he just knew it wasn't!

" Oh but there is..." Emily suddenly stated, resting a surprisingly soft hand on her son's shoulder before smiling gently and gazing down at him with those soft eyes he'd been so used to seeing when he was a small boy.

Shou looked up to his mother and sniffled a little before speaking up again.  
" Th-there is?" he then quickly had a look around the interior of the box...trying deperately to see if there was an exit from the box that he had perhaps missed from before, however there didn't seem to be one...which only made him look back to Emily with a confused look on his face.  
" How?"

Without saying another word, Emily suddenly grabbed ahold of one of Shou's arms quite tightly before also grabbing ahold of one of Alexis's arms.  
" The only way fit for a heretic such as yourself...by burning!" however Emily still wore that gentle smile that neither fit the situation nor the words that she had just spoken.  
And before the teenager could argue, she began to walk forward towards the flames...dragging Shou and Alexis along with her.

" Mo-Mom, what are you doing?! how's this going to solve anything? we'll be killed!" Shou exclaimed in a panicked tone...which began to become even more apparent as they neared the intense flames.  
" Mom, please...I...I don't want to die!"

" Maybe you don't want to Shou..." Emily muttered before turning around to look him directly in the eyes, that soft look from before had gone...and all that remained in it's place was an icy cold glare.  
" But me and Alexis do! ...you never once thought about the concequences for all of this, did you?!"  
When the only thing Shou managed to mutter was a saddened **_'No'_** Emily just growled a little and began to run faster towards the flames.  
" Well then...it's only right that you suffer from them, my boy!"

And as the flames started to surround Emily, Alexis and Shou, all the fourteen year old could do was close his eyes and let loose with a horrified shriek...and then after that, it went black.  
All of a sudden, Shou's eyes snapped open and he found himself staring at...his bedroom ceiling?!  
As he sat up slowly, beads of sweat trickled down the young boy's face and his heartbeat was currently going like crazy.  
' _I'm alive?_' was the first thing he thought to himself as he looked towards the bedroom window and saw that the sun was already in the sky, a few birds could be heard twittering on the roof of the house outside...although that was coupled by the noises of people walking down the street.

Tigerlily was currently sitting on the edge of the bed and licking one of her paws as part of her morning wash; there was no sign of a coffin in the bedroom nor was there a bloodstain or signs of a struggle, everything was completely...normal.

It was then that Shou's mind finally pieced everything together and he just blinked awkwardly a few times.  
" It was just a dream..." he murmured before looking around at the room once more.  
Everything that had seemingly happened last night...Emily coming back to life along with all of the dead people in the graveyard, being held captive at the Doctor's clinic, the plan with Samuel, Mortimer and Julius, seeing Alexis again and finally, burning to death in a flaming metal box; it had all been nothing but a really horrible nightmare!

Shou then started to smile at that " it was just a really, really horrible dream..." he carried on with his sentence before getting to his feet and started to jump on the bed out of joy.  
" I didn't commit a taboo! I didn't get Morty, Julius and Sam in trouble! Mom's not a cold-hearted undead person and...and...and I'm still alive!!" he yelled out with every jump that he made before accidently stumbling on a landing and ended up falling back onto the bed.  
But despite that, he just started to laugh ( whether or not sounding slightly insane could be anyone's guess) out of pure euphoria and relief that the horrors he'd witnessed had been nothing but imaginary.

Naturally, this just got Tigerlily to tilt her head to the side slightly in confusion, she wasn't this used to seeing her teenage owner show this much display of energy, well definately not in recent months at least... but pretty soon she just let out a little 'mew' as if to say 'ah well' and went back to washing herself once more.

After a few more moments of relieved happiness, Shou could hear the phone ringing downstairs and looked a little puzzled at that...who on earth could be phoning him at around eleven o'clock in the morning? he definately knew it wasn't Julius, Samuel or Mortimer...those boys were often out goofing off somewhere by this time.  
Maybe it could of been Laura McKenzie? she sometimes checked in on the teenager to make sure he was doing okay.

With that in mind, Shou hopped off of the bed and ran down the stairs, still relieved that the horrors from last night had been nothing but a horrible dream afterall.  
Once he'd got to the living room, Shou finally reached the phone and answered it with a slightly bewildered sounding ' Hello?'  
However, his pupils must of shrunk in shock as he heard a very familiar voice on the other side of the phone, one that he had not heard for eight years...

" Shou? dear lord boy, is that you?!" a male's voice exclaimed over the phone before letting loose with a surprised chuckle.  
" You certainly sound a lot older than I remember you sounding...but I guess I can blame that on me being away for so long, you're doing okay aren't you?"

Despite Jacob's joyful sounding tone on the other side...Shou wasn't exactly too thrilled about hearing his father's voice again.  
Jacob could of phoned home all those years ago if only to ease the anxiety that poor Emily had suffered from, and Shou was sure that Jacob's absence had been one of the reasons for his mother's downfall.  
Understandably, it took Shou a few moments before he replied to his father while attempting to not sound bitter towards him.  
" I'm alright Dad...I finished my school studies a month ago, I haven't really looked into getting a job as of yet though"

Jacob just seemed to hesistate in saying something for a moment before speaking up again, he hadn't expected his son to be this forward in educational studies...didn't most boys stay in school til they were around sixteen? he really wasn't too sure nowadays.  
" Erm...well that's good to hear Shou, how about your mother? is she alright?"

Even if it had been an innocent question on Jacob's part...Shou flinched at that and seemed to tighten his grip on the phone, he should of known that the conversation would come to the subject of Emily sooner or later.  
" No..." Shou started up, figuring it was best to at least tell his father what had happened...it wasn't like he was going to come rushing home out of sympathy and attempt to be the father he **should** of been all those years ago, anyway.  
" Mom died of an illness three months ago, so I've just been living here since then...although Mrs. McKenzie comes to check in on me every now and again, so it's not like I'm alone"

But from the fuss Jacob started making on the other side of the phone, it didn't sound as if that was okay at all.  
In his mind, Jacob Tucker still saw his son as a helpless six year old boy...and started to ramble on about how he didn't have to worry about being left on his own ever again, it also seemed as if he was generally upset at the news of Emily's death as he practically started to apologise, saying how sorry he was to of left them for all of these years and how it must of been hard for poor Emily.  
Although he then paused and told Shou that he had to go out somewhere, but not to worry as the teenager wouldn't 'have to worry about being alone anymore' which just got Shou to respond with a rather puzzled sounding ' Erm...okay?' needless to say...the fourteen year old had a bad feeling about this.

After putting the phone down ( as his father had hung up before he could even say 'Goodbye' ) the young boy had felt a little cautious for the rest of the day...that is until Laura came around for a visit in the late afternoon, although for some reason she seemed to be carrying a load of papers this time round.  
While that had puzzled Shou somewhat, he had quite happily welcomed Laura into the house and even offered to pour out some tea for her; just like he did every other time she visited.

" You know Shou, a boy your age shouldn't be this eager to make tea for a guest...why aren't you out messing around with those friends of yours?" Laura asked casually as she sat back in one of the chairs at the kitchen table while Shou served her some tea.

Shou just gave a small shrug in response and did a small grin to accompany it, concerning the thing on what boys should or shouldn't do...well considering that he had practically been raised by a woman for most of his life, as well as the fact that he'd also been around his mother's friends...he was bound to show a little bit of feminine sensitivity such as politeness and wanting to serve people cups of tea; not that there was anything wrong with that at all; although granted, Jacob would of probably been disgusted at the fact...  
A man shouldn't have to do a woman's work in Jacob's eyes, but he wasn't here...so it didn't matter.  
As for the second topic on goofing off with Mortimer, Samuel and Julius, Shou couldn't help but say a vocal answer for that.

" Those three would of come knocking on the door if they wanted me to hang around with them...they're probably just getting themselves into trouble by bugging the workers at the gun factory anyway" and Shou didn't need to be reminded of how that had gone for him a few years ago when he did decide to be a mischief-maker for once.  
He had got some of the workers angry from throwing pebbles into the work area and tried stealing some of their food on the lunch-break...  
But Shou soon found out that they ( like Dr. McKenzie) weren't against smacking a child and ended up being sore for about a day and a half as a result, needless to say that the young boy had decided to try and stay out of trouble after that.

" Aww, well you're such a good boy for staying out of it then...I'm sure Emily would be so proud of you" Laura said softly as she took a sip from the cup, however her eyes widened as she suddenly remembered something and after swallowing a mouthful of the hot drink, spoke up again.  
" Oh! that reminds me sweetheart...you know how you and Emily were waiting for Jacob to come back?" the blonde then grinned and waved the papers around.  
" Your father called me today, he told me that he heard about Emily's death and wants you to go and live with him...you don't have to worry about being on your own anymore!"

While that normally would of been good news for any child, Shou was far from happy about the fact and just shook his head.  
" Oh, n-no...I'm alright with living here! I mean I have Tigerlily with me...and you only live down the road, it's not like I'm really on my own!" he insisted with a nervous smile.  
" I'm nearly an adult anyway"

But despite Shou's insisting that he was alright with looking after himself, Laura just sighed in disbelief and shook her head.  
" I'm sorry Shou, but you still have another four years before you'll finally be listed as an adult" she confessed and ruffled his hair slightly...much to his discomfort.  
" But nice try..."

Shou just sighed in despair at that...while it was true that he was still considered a child, it wasn't like he was five or six anymore and it wasn't like he cried whenever there was no one to look after him...as far as he was concerned, he grew out of that a few months ago; even if he did still feel lonely sometimes, but it wasn't like he sobbed his heart out over it... however he was currently curious as to what those papers that Laura had with her, were about and absently pointed to them.  
" Erm...what are those abou-" was all he said in a questioning manner before he trailed off as Laura let out a surprised gasp.

" Oh! you mean these?" Laura asked and pointed at the papers...when Shou gave a nod in response, Mrs. McKenzie just smiled a little.  
" Well, these are adoption papers...due to the fact that you're partially an orphan with one remaining parent who lives away from home, the State has ordered that you go and live with your father...see here?" she pointed to one of the boxes that held a tick and a signiture.

" Jacob already signed it earlier today...so you're officially his son once more" however...Laura also seemed to give a sad little smile, it looked as if she'd wanted to adopt the young teenager too...but she felt that maybe it would be best for him to go with his actual father.  
" It's also my duty as your guardian to take you over to his place...that's more or less why I came over, I know it may seem a little sudden Shou... but Jacob said that he would feel more at ease as soon as you were back with him" although deep down, even Laura couldn't help but find that pretty strange.  
' _Although I'd personally call that ' an act of desperation by a lonely father' on Jacob's part... but I guess I have no say in this_' she muttered inwardly to herself as she finally finished off the cup of tea and got up from the chair she'd been sitting on.  
" So I suppose you should pack up the things you have and we'll get going"

Shou was hesistant in responding at first... but the more he thought about it, the more he realised that there no use in resisting when the odds were against him.  
He was too young to stay living on his own for a long amount of time, it was only a matter of time before the money he had ran out and what's more, he had no job to support himself; so in the end, Shou just gave a small nod and also got up from his chair.  
After that, the two of them began to pack up the essentials that Shou would need; like his clothes and toothbrush.  
Shou had also chose to bring along his sketch books, text books and the Tucker's family photo album...and of course, Tigerlilly was definately coming to live with him and Jacob...who cares if Jacob wasn't too fond of cats? Tigerlily had been Shou's and Emily's and the young teenager was adamant on keeping her.

Once everything was packed up into Laura's motorcar and the house was all locked up...the three of them were now making their way over to Jacob's residence.  
Shou just stroked Tigerlily as the tabby cat lay fast asleep on his lap, and looked out at the scenery that passed them by.  
'_ I'll have to phone Morty, Sam and Julius later on and tell them about what's happened and where I'll be living from now on...I just hope Dad lets me hang around with them_' was all he said inwardly to himself.

About an hour and a half later ( Laura had a bit of trouble finding the address) the car finally parked up outside Jacob's house, Laura got out of the car and began to make her way up the garden path, finally reaching the front door.  
As Laura knocked at the door, Shou just remained sitting in the car with Tigerlily and gazed at the residency that he would finally be calling 'home' from now on.  
It was quite a quaint looking house and not too fancy, it was moderately sized too...and while not a State house, nor a mansion; it was definately easy to see that it was bigger than the house that the Tucker's had in the backstreets of the city...it even had a garden too!  
' _So he's been living the good life, er? ...good for him_' Shou thought with a frown...and that frown didn't go away when he saw that Jacob had finally answered the door.

" Ahh Laura, I was beginning to wonder where the two of you had got to" Mr. Tucker SR said with a small laugh as he shook hands with the young woman.  
" Shou didn't put up a fight in coming did he?"

" Oh no, e-heh actually he came along quite well...I'm afraid I have to apologise, we would of got here sooner but I had a problem with finding the address to this place" Laura confessed, laughing nervously.  
" But we're here now...Shou's in the car although I think he's a little bit tired, he was really quiet during the journey here" she said, looking back to the car and called out.  
" Come on sweetheart, why don't you come up to see your father, hmm?"

But despite even Laura calling out to him, Shou refused to budge...he felt much more at home in the car than with his own father and just stroked Tigerlily softly as she woke up from her slumber.  
Although his eyes widened when he saw that Jacob was now coming towards the car and tried to scoot backwards in the chair and away from the car window with Tigerlily now cradled in his arms instead of on his lap.  
' _No! I don't want to go with him!_' was pretty much what his body language and thoughts seemed to scream.

Before long, Jacob had reached the car and didn't hesistate in opening the door.  
" Come on Shou, you can't stay in there all day...don't you want to come out and see your old man again?" the older man said, surprisingly softly...yet that just got the hairs on the back of Shou's neck to bristle, Jacob was talking to him like he was still a little boy!  
However Jacob just paused as he saw Tigerlily and looked to the young teenager with a questioning expression.  
" ...Don't tell me you picked that thing up off of the street just before you came over here, Shou you know how I am with cats..."

Now *that* did it... and without any warning, Shou finally spoke up.  
" Tigerlily's not going anywhere! Mom got her from a pet shop seven years ago and she's been with the family ever since" he told Jacob as he cuddled the tabby cat close to him.  
However, his expression and tone soon softened as he looked down at Tigerlily.  
"...And I'm not going to lose her now"

Jacob didn't say anything in response to that at first, but the look on his face almost seemed to resemble the expression he used to give Shou when the boy got himself into trouble, although to Shou...the memory that perhaps showed the greatest example of that scowl was that time when he'd been caught with one of Jacob's alchemy books.  
After what seemed like forever, Jacob finally did what sounded like a defeated sigh and just turned his back on his teenage son.  
" Fine, you can keep her...but just remember that she's your responsibility and yours alone" he muttered...obviously that was his way of saying **_' So you're the one who has to feed her, groom her and make sure she goes to the toilet outside; I'm taking no part in any of it'_** and before long, was making his way back up the garden path.

Shou didn't really say anything in response to that...but a ghost of a smirk graced his face if only for a moment, as he knew that he'd won a arguement against his own father.  
' _You never could stand it when someone stood up to you, could you father?_' the adult Shou's mind asked, not really feeling the smugness that his younger self was currently displaying...he'd lived through all of this before and he knew how it all turned out in the end, that was something he dreaded in seeing again...but he was thankful enough in knowing that it wouldn't be happening yet.

After Jacob and Laura had taken all of the stuff ( that Shou and Laura had packed up anyway) from the Tucker's old house into Jacob's house, Shou decided that maybe it would be best to give Jacob a chance afterall and pretty soon, the fourteen year old finally got out of the car with Tigerlily still cradled in his arms.  
" This is going to be our new home, girl" he told her as he gazed up at the building.  
" I have to admit I'm pretty nervous about it...but we should be okay here, right?"

Naturally the cat couldn't comfort him by telling him **_' of course it will be alright'_** considering the fact she didn't know the human tongue, but she did let loose with a couple of mew's to at least show that she had been listening.  
Once reaching the front door, Shou set Tigerlily down on the ground carefully and just looked to Jacob and Laura as they were discussing a few more things and Laura finally turned to face Shou with an apologetic smile.

" Well then...I suppose I should get going now, those patients of mine can get pretty cranky if they don't get seen to in less than a minute of their arrival" she said with a small little chuckle and gave the boy a hug.  
" You be good for your Dad, okay?"

Shou looked fairly alarmed that Laura had to leave so soon...but as she explained her reasons for not being able to stay, just gave a small sigh and a nod...he should of known that it would just be him and Tigerlily left with Jacob sooner or later.  
" Okay I will...and thank you for bringing me here, Mrs. McKenzie" he reponded as he hugged back, giving a slightly sad looking smile.  
" Take care..."

Laura took note of the sad look on Shou's face...yet as guilty as she felt for leaving him with Jacob, she knew that she couldn't do anything about the situation.  
" You take care too..." and after nodding to Jacob and giving a wave to him, Shou and Tigerlily; Mrs. McKenzie finally went back down the garden path, got into her car and drove off down the street.

Shou just watched in despair as Laura's car disappeared into the distance...and just shot his father an anxious look as the older man turned to go inside the house.  
' _I might as well see what this new house is like...for all I know, I might learn to like it here_' the young teenager told himself mentally as he followed Jacob into the house, getting Tigerlily to follow as well.  
When he was inside the house, the first thing Shou noticed was that everything looked a lot more tidier even though Jacob hadn't really given off the impression of being one to do house-cleaning, he had said that was a housewife's job at a much earlier date afterall.  
'_ The only other way he could of got the place this clean is if he'd hired a maid_' the teenaged reasonated with himself...but that realisation just got him to frown, of course a maid would mean female company and Shou couldn't help but frown a little at the thought.  
' _He'd better not of been cheating on Mom while he was away from us...if he was, I swear I'll never forgive him_'

" So what do you think of the place so far?" Jacob asked as he walked up to his son with a rather happy smile on his face, perhaps over the victory of the fact that he'd got his son back by means of a legal contract.  
" It's quite a house, yes?" although the older man wasn't finished there as he just folded his arms and grinned almost smugly.  
" I think we could both definately agree that this beats our tiny excuse for a home back in the slums, right?"

Shou just seemed to grit his teeth out of slight annoyance; that _**tiny excuse for a home **_as Jacob so lightly put it, had been the place where Shou was born and raised...to think this man would gladly throw away something of sentimental value was almost sickening if not shocking.  
But while Shou severely disagreed with Jacob's statement, he could see how it was perhaps a better place...it seemed somewhat bigger, warmer and was in a slightly more nicer area.

**To be continued. **


End file.
